PLEASE Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
adverb
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(used as a polite addition to requests, commands, etc.) if you would be so obliging; kindly.
Please come here.
Will you please turn the radio off?
verb (used with object)
pleased, pleasing
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to act to the pleasure or satisfaction of.
to please the public.
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to be the pleasure or will of.
May it please your Majesty.
verb (used without object)
pleased, pleasing
idioms
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if you please,
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if it be your pleasure; if you like or prefer.
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(used as an exclamation expressing astonishment, indignation, etc.).
The missing letter was in his pocket, if you please!
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please British
/ ˈpliːzɪdlɪ, pliːz /
verb
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to give satisfaction, pleasure, or contentment to (a person); make or cause (a person) to be glad
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to be the will of or have the will (to)
if it pleases you
the court pleases
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if you will or wish, sometimes used in ironic exclamation
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happy because of
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to do as one likes
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
adverb
-
(sentence modifier) used in making polite requests and in pleading, asking for a favour, etc
please don't tell the police where I am
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a polite formula for accepting an offer, invitation, etc
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Word Forms
- half-pleased adjective
- outplease verb (used with object)
- overplease verb
- pleasable adjective
- pleased adjective
- pleasedly adverb
- pleasedness noun
- pleaser noun
- self-pleased adjective
- unpleasable adjective
- unpleased adjective
- well-pleased adjective
Etymology
Origin of please
First recorded in 1275–1325; (verb) Middle English plesen, plaisen, from Middle French plaisir, ultimately from Latin placēre “to please, seem good” ( placid ); the use of please with requests, etc., is presumably a reduction of the clause (it) please you “may it please you,” later reinforced by imperative use of intransitive please to be pleased, wish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She punched the air at the conclusion, and even as she missed out on a medal she had the body language of someone pleased to have brought her best to the Olympic stage.
From BBC
“In the meantime, please keep those impacted in your hearts. ... This was an enormous tragedy, and the saddest event our team has ever experienced.”
From Los Angeles Times
Legally, service fees are treated differently from tips: The former is the property of the restaurateur to distribute as they please, while tips are legally the property of the individual server.
From Los Angeles Times
"In an ocean you don't see undercurrents but local people know where the undercurrents are and where avalanches go off frequently. So please always talk with local people and listen to the avalanche forecast."
From BBC
If skating once felt like her job, or something she was doing to please her father, now she treated it as a chance to express herself as an artist.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.