entreat

verb

1. (transitive)Senses relating to asking or pleading.

   “If you be ſhe, I doe intreat your patience / To heare me ſpeake the meſſage I am ſent on.”

   “My Lord vve muſt entreate the time alone.”

   “Our tyred lymbes, bruſ'd in the morning fight, / Intreat ſoft reſt, and gentle huſht repoſe.”

   “Thy Dukedome I reſigne, and doe entreat / Thou pardon me my vvrongs: […]”

   “And the daughter of Tyre ſhall be there with a gift, euen the rich among the people ſhall intreate thy fauour.”

2. (transitive)Senses relating to asking or pleading.

   “Then Pharaoh called for Moſes and Aaron, and ſaid, Intreat the Lord, that hee may take away the frogges from me, and from my people: […]”

   “Go vvhen you vvill, (ſaid Agamemnon) fly, / Ile not entreat you for my ſake to ſtay.”

   “And here I muſt intreat the Reader to preſerve his full freedom of mind intire, and not vveakly ſuffer his judgment to be overborn by your imagination and your prejudices, by Ghoſts and Viſions, and above all by that extreme ſatisfaction and complacency vvith vvhich you utter your ſtrange conceits; […]”

   “[A]ll vvhom I entreat to ſing, are inſtantaneouſly troubled vvith colds; […]”

   “His spear gored thy breast, O Ethelwold; though with supplications thou intreatedst him to spare thy life.”

3. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to asking or pleading.

   “[S]he could in no wiſe be intreated with her good vyll to delyuer him, […]”

   “This ſhould intreat your highneſſe to reioice, / Since Fortune giues you opportunity, / To gaine the tytle of a Conquerour, […]”

   “No ſolace could her Paramour intreat / Her once to ſhovv, ne court, ne dalliaunce, / But vvith bent lovvring brovves, as ſhe vvould threat, / She ſcould, and frovvnd vvith frovvard countenaunce, / Vnvvorthy of faire Ladies comely gouernaunce.”

   “VVith a hundred bleſsings and many praiers thou intreatſt mee to loue thee.”

   “I haue beene vvooed as I intreat thee novv, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull god of vvarre, / VVhoſe ſinovvie necke in battel nere did bovv, / VVho conquers vvhere he comes in euerie iarre, […]”

4. (intransitive)Senses relating to asking or pleading.

   “[T]he rayſing of people, and aſſemble of Souldiours by him, could ſignifie no peace, nor treatie of concorde: except a man ſhould ſaye, that intreating for fauour with naked ſworde in hande, were an humble ſubmiſſion and a meeke requeſt: […]”

   “Still ſhe intreats, and prettily intreats, / For to a prettie eare ſhe tunes her tale.”

   “Theſe are the motives, vvhich t' induce, / Or fright us into Love, you uſe, / […] / Like ſturdy Beggers, that intreat, / For Charity, at once, and threat, […]”

   “[S]he diſdains and threatens, and again is humble, and intreats; and nothing availing, deſpairs, curſes, and at laſt becomes her ovvn Executioner.”

   “[S]he had made some knocking, and she owned she had heard her moan bitterly, as she entreated for admission.”

5. (archaic, intransitive)Senses relating to asking or pleading.

   “Wil ye accepte yͤ perſonne of God, and intreate for him?”

   “That if ſhe loue me, I charge her to loue thee: if ſhe vvill not, I vvill neuer haue her, vlneſſe thou intreat for her: […]”

   “[T]hey […] charg'd me on paine / Of their diſpleaſure, neither to ſpeake of him, / Intreat for him, nor in any vvay ſuſtaine him.”

   “And Moſes ſaide vnto Pharaoh, Glory ouer mee: when ſhall I entreat for thee, and for thy ſeruants, and for thy people to deſtroy the frogges from thee, and thy houſes, that they may remaine in the riuer onely?”

   “And, for your envoy, he shall die, the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for him.”

6. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

   “And here I ſpeake of the generation, wherby they doo engender, and not of that, wherby they are engendred, becauſe it ſhuld be to long to intreate, howe the chyldren of lyght are ingendred, and how they come in at the doore: and howe the children of the world be engendred, and come in an other way.”

   “Vncle, you ſay the Queene is at your houſe, / For Gods ſake fairely let her be intreated.”

   “Is it not enough that my aunt, her mother [Catherine of Aragon], was evil entreated by the king [Henry VIII] that dead is, but my cousin [Mary I of England] must be worse ordered by councillors now.”

   “The Lord ſaid, Uerely it ſhall be well with thy remnant, verely I will cauſe the enemie to intreat thee well in the time of euill, and in the time of affliction.”

   “Frederick [II, Holy Roman Emperor] before he ratified any thing by oath, ſent to have the Popes [Innocent IV's] approbation: vvho ill entreated and impriſoned his meſſengers, denied them audience, and contemptuouſly tore the Emperors letters.”

7. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

   “[T]hey entreated the ſayd companyons and offred them golde⸝ and ſyluer⸝ and paſſage: […]”

8. (obsolete, reflexive, transitive)Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

   “The Gardin of Proſerpina […] ſhe often vſd from open heat / Her ſelfe to ſhroud, and pleaſures to entreat.”

9. (intransitive, obsolete)Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

   “[O]f all theſe ſeuerally I intend to intreate in the folovving chapters.”

   “[T]he moſt admirable myſtery of Nature, in my mind, is the turning of yron touched vvith the loadſtone, tovvard the North-pole, of vvhich I ſhall have farther occaſion to intreate, […]”

   “[Y]ou ſhould diigently vveigh and conſider the matter vvhereof Paul intreateth: for he intreateth of the vvord of God, vvhich can never be maginified enough.”

10. (intransitive, obsolete)Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

    “[B]ytwene theſe parties entreated for a peace⸝ the archbyſhoppe of Senus⸝ the byſſhoppe of Auſſer⸝ the byſſhoppe of Beaumoys⸝ the lorde of Momorency⸝ the lorde of Fyenes⸝ and the lorde of ſaynt Uenant.”

    “[W]hiles yͤ bones of Marcello were a brẽning [brenning, i.e., burning], ſhe was entreting to mary an other huſbãd [husband], […]”

    “And this mariage agreed vpon (which ſemeth more likely to be intreated of then cõcluded [i.e., than concluded].”

    “Ile ſend ſome holy Biſhop to intreat: / For God forbid, ſo many ſimple ſoules / Should periſh by the Svvord.”

    “But with Alexander they were well pleaſed, becauſe hee was the firſt that entreated of peace with them, and they were confederate with him alwayes.”

noun

1. (obsolete)Synonym of entreaty (“an act of asking earnestly or begging for something”); an appeal, a plea.

   “Let my entreats of Love prevail ſo far, / VVhen for your happineſſe they ſpoken are: / Be not a Captive to the vvorld, but be / One unto Heav'n, and that is to be free.”

   “[…] I began a little chat with my fair companion, who remained standing, notwithstanding my repeated entreates that she would be seated.”

   “In the Muslim world, the most compelling and decisive books are those full of confessions written on the flesh of victims, and the most earnest prayers are the entreats for mercy screamed in pain and anguish at the tormentors and flesh and thought.”