plea for mercy
Begging for leniency
A plea for mercy is an appeal asking someone in power to show compassion rather than impose the full consequences you might deserve.
Defendants make pleas for mercy before sentencing, hoping for leniency.
The phrase suggests acknowledging wrongdoing while asking for gentler treatment: He made a desperate plea for mercy, but the judge was unmoved.
- begAsk with desperation
- forgiveCease to blame
- pardonOfficial release from punishment
- clemencyMerciful treatment of offenders
- act of graceUndeserved kindness shown freely
supplication · kneel · tears · desperate · cry for help · hands · prayer · implore · spare · leniency · grovel · confession · repentance · judge · court of law · sentence · condemned · death row
- clemencypardon, amnesty, clemency, reprieve, commutation
- mercyclemency, compassion, forgiveness, leniency, lenience
plea for mercycondemnation
Severe disapproval expressed formally
accusation · denunciation · indictment · prosecution · death sentence
plea, pleas, plead, pleads, pleaded, pleading, pleadings, mercy, mercies