1. To give pleasure to; to excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to make glad; to gratify; to content; to satisfy. "I pray to God that it may plesen you." (Chaucer) "What next I bring shall please thee, be assured." (Milton)
2. To have or take pleasure in; hence, to choose; to wish; to desire; to will. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he." (Ps. Cxxxv. 6) "A man doing as he wills, and doing as he pleases, are the same things in common speech." (J. Edwards)
3. To be the will or pleasure of; to seem good to; used impersonally. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." "To-morrow, may it please you." (Shak) To be pleased in or with, to have complacency in; to take pleasure in. To be pleased to do a thing, to take pleasure in doing it; to have the will to do it; to think proper to do it.
Origin: OE. Plesen, OF. Plaisir, fr. L. Placere, akin to placare to reconcile. Cf. Complacent, Placable, Placid, Plea, Plead, Pleasure.
(01 Mar 1998)
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