entreat

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman entretier, from Old French entraiter, from en- + traiter.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

entreat (plural entreats)

1. Alternative form of entreaty
   • 2006, Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 236:

     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.

Verb

entreat (third-person singular simple present entreats, present participle entreating, simple past and past participle entreated)

1. (obsolete) To treat, or conduct toward; to deal with; to use.
   • Shakespeare

     Fairly let her be entreated.

   • Bible, Jer. xv. 11

     I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well.

2. To treat with, or in respect to, a thing desired; hence, to ask earnestly; to beseech; to petition or pray with urgency; to supplicate; to importune.
   • Shakespeare

     I do entreat your patience.

   • Edgar Allan Poe

     some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door

3. To beseech or supplicate (a person); to prevail upon by prayer or solicitation; to try to persuade.
   • Rogers

     It were a fruitless attempt to appease a power whom no prayers could entreat.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     “But I cannot persuade her to go away, my lady,” said the footman; “nor can any of the servants. Mrs. Fairfax is with her just now, entreating her to be gone; but she has taken a chair in the chimney-comer, and says nothing shall stir her from it till she gets leave to come in here.”

   • 1937, Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline, “One Song”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney:

     One heart / Tenderly beating / Ever entreating / Constant and true

4. (obsolete) To invite; to entertain.
   • Spenser

     pleasures to entreat

5. (obsolete) To treat or discourse; hence, to enter into negotiations, as for a treaty.
   • Hakewill

     of which I shall have further occasion to entreat

   • Bible, 1 Mac. x. 47

     Alexander […] was first that entreated of true peace with them.

6. (obsolete) To make an earnest petition or request.
   • Knolles

     The Janizaries entreated for them as valiant men.

Anagrams

• Arnette, Ternate, ratteen, ternate