ply

A layer of material.

two-ply toilet paper

It is possible to have a very well load balanced partition but with such a high ply that its slowest piece is slower than a not-so-well balanced partition with less ply.

A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn.

To make the hail rod a rope of straw is the first thing necessary; it must be made of ripe wheat straw, soaked and twisted, plaited with three strand and then with four ply, making twelve strand to the rope.

Clipping of plywood.

The compartment ceiling panels are of plastic material backed with ply or hardboard panels.

The Standards describe the quality of timber or ply, moisture content, amount of acceptable sapwood, freedom from decay and insect attack, limitation of checks and splits and treatment of resin staining, and the way plugging may be employed to mask defects in ply faces.

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.

Chinook uses an iterative, alpha-beta search with transposition tables and the history heuristic[…]. Under tournament conditions (thirty moves an hour), the program searches to an average minimum depth of nineteen ply (one ply is one move by one player). The search uses selective deepening to extend lines that are tactically or positionally interesting. Consequently, major lines of play are often searched many plies deeper. It is not uncommon for the program to produce analyses that are thirty-ply deep or more.

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.

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.

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.

To work at (something) diligently.

He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.

Ply you your work or elſe you are like to ſmart.

To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously.

He plied his ax with bloody results.

Why how now Dame, whence growes this inſolence? / Bianca ſtand aſide, poore gyrle ſhe weepes: / Go ply thy Needle; meddle not with her.

To press upon; to urge persistently.

to ply someone with questions or solicitations

He plies the Duke at morning and at night, / And doth impeach the freedome of the ſtate / If they deny him iuſtice.

To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion.

to ply someone with drink

[T]he true Gameſters pretended to be ill, and refuſed their Glaſs, while they plied heartily two young Fellows, who were to be afterwards pillaged, as indeed they were without Mercy.

To travel over (a route) regularly.

to ply the seven seas

The steamer plies between several ports on the coast.