Outplead
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To surpass in pleading; to plead more successfully than. transitive
"There were some strokes in this speech which perhaps would have offended Mr Allworthy, had he strictly attended to it; but he had now got one of his fingers into the infant's hand, which, by its gentle pressure, seeming to implore his assistance, had certainly out-pleaded the eloquence of Mrs Deborah, had it been ten times greater than it was."
Example
More examples"There were some strokes in this speech which perhaps would have offended Mr Allworthy, had he strictly attended to it; but he had now got one of his fingers into the infant's hand, which, by its gentle pressure, seeming to implore his assistance, had certainly out-pleaded the eloquence of Mrs Deborah, had it been ten times greater than it was."
Etymology
From out- + plead.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.