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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Supplicate

Supplicate \Sup"pli*cate\, v. i. To make petition with earnestness and submission; to implore.

A man can not brook to supplicate or beg.
--Bacon.

Supplicate

Supplicate \Sup"pli*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Supplicated; p. pr. & vb. n. Supplicating.] [L. supplicatus, p. p. of supplicare to supplicate; of uncertain origin, cf. supplex, supplicis, humbly begging or entreating; perhaps fr. sub under + a word akin to placare to reconcile, appease (cf. Placable), or fr. sub under + plicare to fold, whence the idea of bending the knees (cf. Ply, v. t.). Cf. Supple.]

  1. To entreat for; to seek by earnest prayer; to ask for earnestly and humbly; as, to supplicate blessings on Christian efforts to spread the gospel.

  2. To address in prayer; to entreat as a supplicant; as, to supplicate the Deity.

    Syn: To beseech; entreat; beg; petition; implore; importune; solicit; crave. See Beseech.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
supplicate

early 15c., "beg for, beseech," back-formation from supplication or else from Latin supplicatus, past participle of supplicare "plead humbly, beseech, kneel down." Related: Supplicated; supplicating.

Wiktionary
supplicate

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To humble oneself before (another) in making a request; to beg or beseech. 2 (context transitive English) To entreat for; to ask for earnestly and humbly. 3 (context transitive English) To address in prayer; to entreat as a supplicant. 4 (context intransitive Oxford University English) To request that an academic degree is awarded at a ceremony.

WordNet
supplicate
  1. v. ask humbly (for something); "He supplicated the King for clemency"

  2. make a humble, earnest petition; "supplicate for permission"

  3. ask for humbly or earnestly, as in prayer; "supplicate God's blessing"

Usage examples of "supplicate".

They went to their regular meals in the English ship, and pretty soon they were nibbling again--nibbling, appetiteless, disgusted with the food, moody, miserable, half hungry, their outraged stomachs cursing and swearing and whining and supplicating all day long.

De Berquin gave him an ironical bow, kissed the gold pieces before pocketing them, dismounted, and entered the inn, replying only with a laugh to the supplicating looks of the moneyless Barbemouche and his hungry-looking comrades on the bench.

Biscarrat, repulsed by his friends, not able to accompany them, without passing in the eyes of Porthos and Aramis for a traitor and a perjurer, with painfully attentive ear and still supplicating hands leaned against the rough side of a rock which he thought must be exposed to the fire of the musketeers.

O, Earth, with all thy sorrows, take, take me once again, that better I may learn to work my way to that last harbour, which rejecting the criminal repiner, opens its soft bosom to the firm, though supplicating sufferer!

The change that had come over Villefort during the examination, the destruction of the letter, the exacted promise, the almost supplicating tones of the magistrate, who seemed rather to implore mercy than to pronounce punishment,all returned with a stunning force to his memory.

Julie gave the stranger a supplicating glance, to which he replied by a smile that an indifferent spectator would have been surprised to see on his stern features.

Villefort shrieked, clasped his hands, and looked at the doctor with a supplicating air.

The two ladies, pressing closely to one another, and drawing the bedclothes tightly around them, remained silent to this supplicating voice, repugnance and fear taking possession of their minds.

Emily, whom a compassionate interest had thus long detained, was now quitting it in new terror, when the supplicating voice of Morano arrested her, and, by a feeble gesture, he beckoned her to draw nearer.

While Blanche, trembling, and nearly fainting, was supplicating for release, she heard amid the tumult, that approached, the voice of St.

New York in the best of health, and I have been at all times thinking of thee, and supplicating fervently at the threshold of the Blessed Beauty that He may guard thee in the stronghold of His protection.

Through the thin wood of the old door he could hear the faint shuffle of her feet on the pavement, moved a few inches this way and that, as though supplicating the inexorable silence.

The change that had come over Villefort during the examination, the destruction of the letter, the exacted promise, the almost supplicating tones of the magistrate, who seemed rather to implore mercy than to pronounce punishment, -- all returned with a stunning force to his memory.

He scrambled to his knees and held supplicating hands out towards his pursuers.

It was all Althea could do not to laugh out loud at the supplicating gesture.