please
To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
Adverb
- Used to make a polite request.
- Please, pass the bread.
- Would you please sign this form?
- Could you tell me the time, please?
Origin
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.
Forms
Derived
bitch, please OK please pl0x please clap please excuse my dear Aunt Sally please explain please find attached please God please help me please pass the salt please repeat after me please say that again please sit down please speak more slowly please turn left please turn right plox pls plz pretty please will the real someone please stand up
Interjection often
- 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.
Synonyms: thank you
- 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!
Coordinate Terms: adzooks ay caramba mirabile dictu chihuahua begorra bleeding heck bleeding Nora bless my heart bless my soul bless us blige blimey bloody hell bloody Nora blow me blow me backwards blow me down blow me over blow me pink blow me tight blow me up blow my buttons butter my butt and call me a biscuit
-
(followed by with + noun or noun phrase)
- 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.
Synonyms: enough enough already that's enough no more cut it out knock it off shut up STFU
Coordinate Terms: adzooks ay caramba mirabile dictu chihuahua begorra bleeding heck bleeding Nora bless my heart bless my soul bless us blige blimey bloody hell bloody Nora blow me blow me backwards blow me down blow me over blow me pink blow me tight blow me up blow my buttons butter my butt and call me a biscuit
Forms
Interjection Cincinnati
- 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? - August 1973, “Bitte or Bitter?”, in Cincinnati, page 109:
- 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. - September 1978, Virginia...
Synonyms: pardon pardon me beg pardon excuse me say again come again what's that what
Origin
Semantic loan from German bitte (“please; excuse me”).
Verb
- 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.
Synonyms: cheer hearten satisfy beatify enrapture begladden blissen bright fetch cheer up cherish content delight elate elevate enbliss exhilarate fain gay gladden gladden someone's heart gratify happify happy
Antonyms: annoy disgust displease irritate aggravate nettle rankle ruffle sting antagonize bother disgruntle botherate bug get grate burn up bedevil cheese off devil exasperate frustrate get up grotch
- 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. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 135:6:
Origin
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.
Forms
pleases pleasing pleased no-table-tags glossary please pleas'd pleasest pleasedst pleaseth - pleace plaise
Related
Derived
as you please crowdpleasing displease go-as-you-please if it you please misplease outplease overplease pleasable pleaseman pleaser please-time please yourself pleasing pleasy superplease you cannot please everyone