ENTREA'AT, verb transitive [Latin tracto, to handle, feel, treat, use, manage.] 1. To ask earnestly; to beseech; to petition or pray with urgency; to supplicate; to solicit pressingly; to importune. Isaac entreated Jehovah for his wife. Genesis 25:1. 2. To prevail on by prayer or solicitation. Hence in the passive form, to be prevailed on; to yield to entreaty. It were a fruitless attempt to appease a power, whom no prayers could entreat. 3. To treat, in any manner; properly, to use or manage; but I believe, entreat is always applied to persons, as treat is to persons or things. Applied to persons, to entreat is to use, or to deal with; to manifest to others any particular deportment, good or ill. I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well. Jeremiah 15:1. The Egyptians evil-entreated us. Deuteronomy 26:1. [In this application, the prefix en is now dropped, and treat is used.] 4. To entertain; to amuse. 5. To entertain; to receive.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI