ply

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A layer of material.

   “two-ply toilet paper”

   “It is possible to have a very well load balanced partition but with such a high ply that its slowest piece is slower than a not-so-well balanced partition with less ply.”

   “The designer critic's staff would come in with, for example, loads of three-ply cashmere. The students weren't even selecting their own fabrics.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn.

   “To make the hail rod a rope of straw is the first thing necessary; it must be made of ripe wheat straw, soaked and twisted, plaited with three strand and then with four ply, making twelve strand to the rope.”

3. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquial, countable, uncountable)Clipping of plywood.

   “The compartment ceiling panels are of plastic material backed with ply or hardboard panels.”

   “The Standards describe the quality of timber or ply, moisture content, amount of acceptable sapwood, freedom from decay and insect attack, limitation of checks and splits and treatment of resin staining, and the way plugging may be employed to mask defects in ply faces.”

   “Teak-faced ply is about three times the price of any other, so if you need to economise, anything other than teak would be a good choice! Similarly, marine ply is substantially more expensive than exterior ply, so it may be preferable to go with the latter option.”

4. (countable, uncountable)In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players.

   “He proposed to build Deep Purple, a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess.”

   “Two principal search strategies were (correctly) predicted: Type-A programs that apply "brute force" inspection of every possible position over a fixed number of plys; and Type-B programs that prune potential moves according to some selection function and then examine the significant sets over as many plys as practical and only at those positions reflecting a degree of stability.”

5. (Scotland, countable, uncountable)A condition, a state.

   “You may be ſure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the propoſal, and was rather a tiptoe for its accompliſhment.”

6. A bent; a direction.

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to submit.

   “And now when at length the Vineyard has ſhed its late Leaves, and the cold Northwind ſhook from the Groves their Honours; even then the active Swain extends his Cares to the enſuing Year, and cloſe plys the deſolate forſaken Vine, cutting off the ſuperfluous Roots with Saturn's crooked Hook, and forms it by pruning.”

2. (intransitive)To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way or yield (to a force, etc.).

   “The Oak Upbraided the Willow, that it was Weak and Wavering, and gave way to Every Blaſt. […] Some very little while after This Diſpute, it Blew a Violent Storm. The Willow Ply’d, and gave way to the Guſt, and ſtill recover’d it ſelf again, without receiving any Damage: But the Oak was Stubborn, and choſe rather to Break than Bend.”

3. (transitive)To work at (something) diligently.

   “He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.”

   “Ply you your work or elſe you are like to ſmart.”

   “But English Courage growing as they fight, / In danger, noise, and slaughter takes delight, / Their bloody Task, unwearied, still they ply, / Only restrain’d by Death, or Victory: […]”

   “Many who have "plied their book diligently," and know all about some one branch or another of accepted lore, come out of the study with an ancient and owl-like demeanour, and prove dry, stockish, and dyspeptic in all the better and brighter parts of life.”

4. (transitive)To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously.

   “He plied his ax with bloody results.”

   “Why how now Dame, whence growes this inſolence? / Bianca ſtand aſide, poore gyrle ſhe weepes: / Go ply thy Needle; meddle not with her.”

   “He [a carpenter] feels an additional particle of new life coursing through his veins, and he plys the plane on the following day with additional energy to his own and to his master's satisfaction.”

   “Drink had dispelled all common prudence, and chuckling at the idea of finding treasures unknown to their comrades, they plied the crowbar to the door, which was locked, but it soon yielded.”

   “[T]his abuse is as outrageous as are the acts of any Ku-Klux that ever plied the lash or sounded a whistle, […]”

5. (transitive)To press upon; to urge persistently.

   “to ply someone with questions or solicitations”

   “He plies the Duke at morning and at night, / And doth impeach the freedome of the ſtate / If they deny him iuſtice.”

6. (transitive)To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion.

   “to ply someone with drink”

   “[T]he true Gameſters pretended to be ill, and refuſed their Glaſs, while they plied heartily two young Fellows, who were to be afterwards pillaged, as indeed they were without Mercy.”

   “Esther began […] to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.”

7. (ambitransitive)To travel over (a route) regularly.

   “to ply the seven seas”

   “The steamer plies between several ports on the coast.”

   “[T]he ſaid corporation ſhall and may be authorized and required to licenſe all ſuch perſon or perſons as ſhall keep or drive any cars, drays or carts, plying for hire within the ſaid town of Wexford,”

   “An act of parliament, empowering the plaintiffs, a company, to ply on Sundays from certain points on the south bank of the Thames, but imposing no obligation to provide means of transport or to maintain their plying-places, does not confer an exclusive right against the rest of the world, such as the Court of Chancery will interfere to protect; […]”

   “Steam navigation is in its infancy: four small 600-ton steamers ply between Hankow, Changsha, and Siangtan; and there are also perhaps a score of launches plying in and out of the province.”

8. (intransitive, obsolete)To work diligently.

   “[…] Ere halfe theſe Authors be read, which will ſoon be with plying hard, and dayly, they cannot chooſe but be maſters of any ordinary proſe.”

   “He was afterwards reduced to great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter for his livelihood.”

9. (intransitive, obsolete)To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so that the direction of the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other; to work to windward, to beat, to tack.

   “Weighed anchor about five morn, and plied till about noon, and then anchored. This day, at morn, went about the general to council: the result was, the fleet should ply near, as with convenience, to the Texel, to prevent a conjunction of those ships there with Admiral [Maarten] Tromp; […]”