PLIED
What does "PLIED" mean?
Past tense of 'ply': used a tool or skill, or kept someone supplied with something.
Meanings
- Worked steadily at a trade or used a tool or skill. For forty years he plied his trade as a cobbler.
- Kept supplying someone with food, drink, or questions, often persistently. They plied the guests with wine until dawn.
- Travelled a route regularly, as a boat or vehicle. Ferries plied the channel between the two islands. formal
Word origin
Past tense of 'ply'; the trade/tool sense is a shortening of 'apply', while the 'fold/strand' sense (as in two-ply yarn) comes from Latin 'plicare' (to fold).
Remember it
PLIED is what you did when you PLY a trade - and 'apply' hides inside the meaning: he ap-PLIED his skill.
A little poem
He plied the same dull awl through forty years,
and in that sameness, quietly, grew skilled-
mastery is just repetition's heirs.
tercet
Wordplay
- The bartender plied the sailor with rum, and the ferry plied the sea - both just doing their regular rounds.
What it teaches
To ply a craft is to return to the same small motion until your hands know it better than your mind.
Quick facts
What does PLIED mean?
Past tense of 'ply': used a tool or skill, or kept someone supplied with something.
Is PLIED a valid word?
Yes — PLIED is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PLIED?
PLIED has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does PLIED come from?
Past tense of 'ply'; the trade/tool sense is a shortening of 'apply', while the 'fold/strand' sense (as in two-ply yarn) comes from Latin 'plicare' (to fold).
What can PLIED teach us?
To ply a craft is to return to the same small motion until your hands know it better than your mind.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.