Word family noun pleasantry pleasure ≠ displeasure adjective pleasant ≠ unpleasant pleased ≠ displeased pleasing ≠ displeasing pleasurable verb please ≠ displease adverb pleasantly ≠ unpleasantly pleasingly pleasurably
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpleaseplease1 /pliːz/ ●●● S1 W2 interjection 1 EMPHASIZEused to be polite when asking someone to do something Could you please clean up the living room? Sit down, please. Please be quiet!2 THANKused to be polite when asking for something I’d like a cup of coffee, please. Please can I go to Rebecca’s house?3 ACCEPTsaid in order to politely accept something that someone offers you ‘More wine?’ ‘Yes, please.’4 → Please!5 → please Sir/Mrs Towers etcExamples from the Corpus
please• "Would you like some more wine?" "Yes, please."• Paige, sit down, please.• Two pancakes for me, please.• Could I please borrow the car?• Please feel free to ask questions at any time.• Would you please hurry up - we're going to be late.Please!Please!informal a) said when you think what someone has just said or asked is not possible or reasonable Oh, please, he’d never do that. b) BEHAVEused to ask someone to stop behaving badly Alison! Please! → pleaseExamples from the Corpus
Please!• "Maybe we'll win." "Oh, please! We don't have any chance at all."• Allison! Please!pleaseplease2 ●●● W3 verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]HAPPY to make someone happy or satisfied a business that wants to please its customers She did everything she could to please him. Most children are eager to please.be hard/easy/impossible etc to please She’s hard to please. Everything has to be perfect.GRAMMAR: Using the progressivePlease is not used in the progressive. You say: I do it because it pleases me. ✗Don’t say: I do it because it is pleasing me.2 FREE TO DO WHAT YOU WANT[intransitive] used in some phrases to show that someone can do or have what they want She does what she pleases.however/whatever etc you please You can spend the money however you please. With the Explorer pass, you can get on and off the bus as you please.3 → please yourself4 → if you please5 → bold/calm/cool etc as you please6 → please God→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
please• They felt this would impart a pleasing curvature to an otherwise rectangular building.• I think he tries a little too hard to please.• Can not afford national advertising, so relies on verbal testimonials to expand business, so eager to please.• I think we have the right to move about as we please.• I was pleased because this is a perfect text for a pentecostal sermon: it predicts the New Jerusalem.• Unfortunately, it's impossible to please everyone, all of the time, at the same time, but I tried.• I was pleased he hadn't seen the note or the tears that I left behind on my Granny's face.• Sam is always doing little things to please her, but she hardly even notices.• I only got married to please my parents.• I was pleased that they selected these people.• Most young children are eager to please their teachers.• Serious snowboarders will be pleased to discover most aspects of the sport have been covered.• Choose room colors to please yourself, not your friends.eager to please• And everyone at Angelique is genuinely eager to please.• Can not afford national advertising, so relies on verbal testimonials to expand business, so eager to please.• Everyone who works there is friendly and eager to please.• Like Julia, Nina is eager to please and dissipates her personality in those around her.• The Yugoslavs are a friendly people who are eager to please and will always be happy to help you.• Mike and Arlene were eager to please, decent, good, friendly people.• Her name was Mrs Dempster, and she seemed pleasant and eager to please her new master.• But, hey, the show is so earnest and eager to please that such things are almost easy to overlook.what ... pleases• The client pays the bar to take her off, to do what he pleases.• The porter holds the car door as if restraining a very strong, young Galapagos tortoise from doing what it pleases.• Within a considerable range, he is permitted to believe what he pleases.• A proper place with real women who understand what pleases a man.• What pleases me may not please you, and my recommendation may disappoint you - and then what would you think?• And he categorises what pleases the imagination as what is great, what is new, and what is beautiful.• Have the courage of your convictions to play what pleases you.• Do you know what pleases your partner most?Origin please2 (1300-1400) Old French plaisir, from Latin placere “to please, be decided” 