please
//pliːz//
informalForms
- present (v1)
- please
- past (v2)
- pleased
- past participle (v3)
- pleased
- present participle
- pleasing
- 3rd person singular
- pleases
Definitions
1.To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
- I'm pleased to see you've been behaving yourself.
- Our new range of organic foods is sure to please.
- Her presentation pleased the executives.
2.To desire; to will; to be pleased by.
- He doesn't think, he just says whatever he pleases.
- “Will any gentleman please to get outside and make room for a lady?”
- Whatsoeuer the Lord pleased, that did he in heauen and in earth: in the Seas, and all deepe places.
1.Used to make a polite request.
- May I take your order, please?
- Would you please sign this form?
- Could you tell me the time, please?
1.Used as an affirmative to an offer.
- May I help you? , (Yes,) please.
- D'you mind if I open the window? , Please do.
2.An expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation.
- Oh, please, do we have to hear that again?
- So it's safe to let a 10-year-old use a gun? Please.
- So now I have to go back there a third time? Please!
3.Said as a request to repeat information.
- Customer while ordering: Can I get a [unintelligible]? Restaurant employee: Please?
- Cincinnati are some of the most polite persons I have ever met in the US. When asking someone a question, instead of saying “Excuse me,” or “Pardon,” they say “Please?”
- Even though I heard it was supposed to be German-Catholic background, there’s only one thing German, they say ‘please’ [for the more common ‘pardon me’], which comes from bitte.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #412
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Very common
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English plesen, plaisen, borrowed from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- (“pleasingness, permission”).