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Plea vs Pretext - What's the difference?

plea | pretext |

As verbs the difference between plea and pretext

is that plea is to fold, fold up, double while pretext is to employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.

As a noun pretext is

a false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.

plea

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.
  • a plea for mercy
  • An excuse; an apology.
  • 1667', ''Necessity, the tyrant’s '''plea .'' --, ''Paradise Lost IV.393
    (rfdate) No plea must serve; ‘t is cruelty to spare. -- .
  • That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
  • (legal) That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
  • (legal) An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
  • (legal) The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
  • (legal) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas. See under Common.
  • (rfdate) The Supreme Judicial Court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed. --Laws of Massachusetts.

    Usage notes

    In 19th century U.K. law, that which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s plea. In chancery practice, a plea is a special answer showing or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dismissed, delayed, or barred. In criminal practice, the plea is the defendant’s formal answer to the indictment or information presented against him/her.

    Anagrams

    *

    pretext

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.
  • The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (Pretexting) (en verb)
  • To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.
  • The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.

    Synonyms

    * blag (UK)

    See also

    * (Social engineering)