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With attachment; with interest; earnestly.

To treat with, or in respect to, a thing desired; hence, to ask earnestly; to beseech; to petition or pray with urgency; to supplicate; to importune. "Entreat my wife to come." "I do entreat your patience." Shak. I must entreat of you some of that money. Shak. Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door. P…

One who entreats; one who asks earnestly; a beseecher.

To reason earnestly with a person on some impropriety of his conduct, representing the wrong he has done or intends, and urging him to make redress or to desist; to remonstrate; -- followed by with. Men expostulate with erring friends; they bring accusations against enemies who have done them a wrong. Jowett (Thuc. ).…

To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink. When earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail. Milton.

To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations. I . . . do forswear her. Shak.

To look with fierce, piercing eyes; to stare earnestly, angrily, or fiercely. And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon. Byron.

To strive after earnestly, as with groans. Nothing but holy, pure, and clear, Or that which groaneth to be so. Herbert.

With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly. And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince. Dryden. My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself. Shak.

To call upon, or for, in supplication; to beseech; to prey to, or for, earnestly; to petition with urency; to entreat; to beg; -- followed directly by the word expressing the thing sought, or the person from whom it is sought. Imploring all the gods that reign above. Pope. I kneel, and then implore her blessing. Shak.…

With urgency or importunity; earnestly; pressingly. "They besought him instantly." Luke vii. 4.

To call on for aid or protection; to invite earnestly or solemnly; to summon; to address in prayer; to solicit or demand by invocation; to implore; as, to invoke the Supreme Being, or to invoke His and blessing. Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, . . . Invoke his warlike spirit. Shak.…

o. [Colloq.] See To knock under, under Knock, v. i. (b) To apply one's self vigorously or earnestly to; as, to knuckle to work. [Colloq.]

lay on blows; to strike violently. [Obs. or Archaic] -- To lay one's self out, to strive earnestly. No selfish man will be concerned to lay out himself for the good of his country. Smalridge. -- To lay one's self open to, to expose one's self to, as to an accusation. -- To lay open, to open; to uncover; to expose; to…

ranted by which restraint or illegality is removed; permission; allowance; license. David earnestly asked leave of me. 1 Sam. xx. 6. No friend has leave to bear away the dead. Dryden.

Hence: To long eagerly; to desire earnestly. As the hart panteth after the water brooks. Ps. xlii. 1. Who pants for glory finds but short repose. Pope.

To invite earnestly; to solicit. [Obs.] Bp. Burnet.

To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for. I know not how to pray your patience. Shak.

To advise or recommend earnestly. My master preaches patience to him. Shak. To preach down, to oppress, or humiliate by preaching. Tennyson. -- To preach up, to exalt by preaching; to preach in support of; as, to preach up equality.

To throw or turn back the thoughts upon anything; to contemplate. Specifically: To attend earnestly to what passes within the mind; to attend to the facts or phenomena of consciousness; to use attention or earnest thought; to meditate; especially, to think in relation to moral truth or rules. We can not be said to refl…