please
verbadverbinterjectioninterjectiontop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//pliːz//
- United States//pliz//
To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
verb
- 1
To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
Her presentation pleased the executives.
I'm pleased to see you've been behaving yourself.
Our new range of organic foods is sure to please.
And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].
- 2
To desire; to will; to be pleased by.
Just do as you please.
He doesn't think, he just says whatever he pleases.
Whatsoeuer the Lord pleased, that did he in heauen and in earth: in the Seas, and all deepe places.
“Will any gentleman please to get outside and make room for a lady?”
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”). In this sense, displaced native Old English līcian, whence Modern English like.
adverb
- 1
Used to make a polite request.
Please, pass the bread.
Would you please sign this form?
Could you tell me the time, please?
May I take your order, please?
Etymology
Short for if you please, an intransitive, ergative form taken from if it please you which is a calque of French s'il vous plaît, which replaced pray. If it please you is a present subjunctive form, but most current uses of please are not parsed that way.
interjection
- 1
Used as an affirmative to an offer.
Near-synonym: thank you
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
An expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation.
Near-synonyms: enough, enough already, that's enough, no more, cut it out, knock it off, shut up, STFU
Please with that damn harmonica!
Please with all the ads, I just want to watch the movie.
interjection
- 1
Said as a request to repeat information.
Customer while ordering: Can I get a [unintelligible]? Restaurant employee: Please?
Fellow: May I have a few days off to get married? Reply, in the Cincinnati idiom by a boss who had heard the sound but not the sense: Boss: 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.
[…] He explained in broken English that one of his daughters was ill and he probably could not be there. I did not understand all that he said, so asked, ‘Please?’ per Cincinnati custom. ‘There is no need to plead. I will be there if she is feeling better,’ he replied.
Etymology
Semantic loan from German bitte (“please; excuse me”).
Forms
- past tense
- pleased
- past participle
- pleased
- present participle
- pleasing
- third person singular
- pleases
please · To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
pleased · Happy, content.pleasing · Agreeable; giving pleasure, cheer, enjoyment or gratification.pleasure · A state of being pleased or contented; gratification.