pray

To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.

• Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.

To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.

To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.obsolete

• I know not how to pray your patience.

To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.

• She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.

To implore, to entreat, to request.obsolete

• They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, That doth despise the dainties of the towne[…]
• In time of drought the Abchases of the Caucasus sacrifice an ox to Ap-hi, the god of thunder and lightning, and an old man prays him to send rain, thunder, and lightning, telling him that the crops are parched.

Please; used to make a polite requestarchaicformalnot-comparable

• pray silence for…

Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you”).alt-ofalternativenot-comparable

• Shall I be moved to love you, pray, / By hints that I must soon decay? / No woman's won by being told / How quickly she is growing old[...]
• He is a South American, so perhaps revolutionary spirit courses through Francis's veins. But what, pray, does the Catholic church want with doubt?