Ply
Ply , transitive verb
[Old English plien, French plier to fold, to bend, from Latin plicare; akin to Greek {not transcribed}, German flechten. Compare Apply, Complex, Display, Duplicity, Employ, Exploit, Implicate, Plait, Pliant, Flax.]
1.
To bend. [Obsolete]
As men may warm wax with handes plie.
2.
To lay on closely, or in folds; to work upon steadily, or with repeated acts; to press upon; to urge importunately; as, to ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink.
And plies him with redoubled strokes
He plies the duke at morning and at night.
3.
To employ diligently; to use steadily.
Go ply thy needle; meddle not.
4.
To practice or perform with diligence; to work at.
Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply.
Ply , intransitive verb
1.
To bend; to yield. [Obsolete]
It would rather burst atwo than plye.
The willow plied, and gave way to the gust.
2.
To act, go, or work diligently and steadily; especially, to do something by repeated actions; to go back and forth; as, a steamer plies between certain ports.
Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily).
He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter.
The heavy hammers and mallets plied.
3.
(Nautical) To work to windward; to beat.
Ply , noun
[Compare French pli, from plier. See Ply, v.]
1.
A fold; a plait; a turn or twist, as of a cord. — Arbuthnot
2.
Bent; turn; direction; bias.
The late learners can not so well take the ply.
Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries,... did not understand the secret plies of his character.
The czar's mind had taken a strange ply, which it retained to the last.
Ply is used in composition to designate folds, or the number of webs interwoven; as, a three-ply carpet.