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Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." Wordsworth.

Containing a plaint; complaining; expressing sorrow with an audible voice. "My plaintful tongue." Sir P. Sidney.

See Plaintive. [Obs.] Prior.

Expressive of sorrow or melancholy; mournful; sad. "The most plaintive ditty." Landor. -- Plain"tive*ly, adv. -- Plain"tive*ness, n.

Without complaint; unrepining. "Plaintless patience." Savage.

ure, or resentment; lamentation; murmuring; accusation; fault-finding. I poured out my complaint before him. Ps. cxlii. 2. Grievous complaints of you. Shak.

Full of complaint. [Obs.]

eir doings, God takes no account." Milton . -- A writ of account (Law), a writ which the plaintiff brings demanding that the defendant shall render his just account, or show good cause to the contrary; -- called also an action of account. Cowell.

One who institutes a suit; plaintiff or complainant.

An exclamation, expressive of surprise, pity, complaint, entreaty, contempt, threatening, delight, triumph, etc., according to the manner of utterance.

Allegation. [Obs.] With many complaints and allegements. Bp. Sanderson.

Counteractive of bilious complaints; tending to relieve biliousness.

s a prisoner at the bar of a court to answer to the matter charged in an indictment or complaint. Blackstone.

the act of calling and setting a prisoner before a court to answer to an indictment or complaint.

To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter. Blackstone.

A special plea constituting a sufficient answer to plaintiff's action.

Patient endurance; suffering without complaint.

the price of each. -- Bill of particulars (Law), a detailed statement of the items of a plaintiff's demand in an action, or of the defendant's set-off. -- Bill of rights, a summary of rights and privileges claimed by a people. Such was the declaration presented by the Lords and Commons of England to the Prince and P…

olute; downright; unmixed; as, blank terror. Blank bar (Law), a plea put in to oblige the plaintiff in an action of trespass to assign the certain place where the trespass was committed; -- called also common bar. -- Blank cartridge, a cartridge containing no ball. -- Blank deed. See Deed. -- Blank door, or Blank wi…

A plaintive cry of, or like that of, a sheep. The bleat of fleecy sheep. Chapman's Homer.