noun

• (colloquial) Clipping of plywood.
  "The compartment ceiling panels are of plastic material backed with ply or hardboard panels."
• (artificial intelligence, combinatorial game theory) In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players.
  "He proposed to build Deep Purple, a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess."
• (now chiefly Scotland) A condition, a state.
  "You may be ſure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the propoſal, and was rather a tiptoe for its accompliſhment."

verb

• (transitive, obsolete) To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to submit.
  "And now when at length the Vineyard has ſhed its late Leaves, and the cold Northwind ſhook from the Groves their Honours; even then the active Swain extends his Cares to the enſuing Year, and cloſe plys the deſolate forſaken Vine, cutting off the ſuperfluous Roots with Saturn's crooked Hook, and forms it by pruning."
• (intransitive) To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way or yield (to a force, etc.).
  "The Oak Upbraided the Willow, that it was Weak and Wavering, and gave way to Every Blaſt. […] Some very little while after This Diſpute, it Blew a Violent Storm. The Willow Ply’d, and gave way to the Guſt, and ſtill recover’d it ſelf again, without receiving any Damage: But the Oak was Stubborn, and choſe rather to Break than Bend."

verb

• (transitive) To work at (something) diligently.
  "He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years."
• (transitive) To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously.
  "He plied his ax with bloody results."
• (transitive) To press upon; to urge persistently.
  "to ply someone with questions or solicitations"
• (transitive) To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion.
  "to ply someone with drink"