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''parley'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250819014146-00-⌔

parley - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

parley (countable and uncountable, plural parleys)

  • A conference, especially one between enemies.
    • ✤ We yield on parley, but are stormed in vain.1
    • ✤ Without further parley Garland rode off up the hog’s-back and the sheriff rode off down it […]2
    • ✤ In the highest-level parley of leaders of the two countries since the accident, President Obama is to meet with Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, on Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea, after a nuclear security conference there, to discuss Afghanistan and other security issues.3

Verb

parley (third-person singular simple present parleys, present participle parleying, simple past and past participle parleyed)

  • (intransitive) To have a discussion, especially one between enemies.
    • ✤ Synonyms: chat, discourse, moot; see also Thesaurus: converse
    • ✤ […] at day break we found the villaine, who, loath to parlee in fire and ſhot, fled amaine and left us […]4
    • ✤ “That is droll. Listen yet one time. You are very spiritual. Can you make a honorable lady of Her?”/“Don’t be so malicious,” says Mr. Bucket./“Or a haughty gentleman of Him?” cries Madamoiselle, referring to Sir Leicester with ineffable disdain. “Eh! O then regard him! The poor infant! Ha! ha! ha!”/“Come, come, why this is worse Parlaying than the other,” says Mr. Bucket. “Come along!”5
    • ✤ Jack “parlayed” with them until he had completed his task, and then he closed the gate in their faces.6
    • ✤ Mia is a teenage girl from Mexico who can read her mother’s mind. Akhil is a young man in New Jersey who is seeing things through other people’s eyes. And Lily parleys brain-to-brain with friends who are far away from where she lives in Georgia. According to The Telepathy Tapes, a 10-part audio series that is now one of the most popular podcasts in America, Mia, Akhil, and Lily are nonspeaking people with autism who have a special skill: They’re savants for ESP.7

Etymology

From Middle English parlai (“speech, parley”), from Old French parler (“to talk; to speak”), from Late Latin parabolō, from Latin parabola (“comparison”), from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ), from παρά (pará, “beside”) with βολή (bolḗ, “throwing”). Doublet of palaver.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpɑːli/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈpɑɹli/
  • (Scotland) IPA: /ˈpaɾle/
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)li

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC,: ↩

  2. 1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter IV, in The Understanding Heart: ↩

  3. 2012 March 24, Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Plans No Charges Over Deadly Strike in Pakistan”, in The New York Times ‎, →ISSN: ↩

  4. 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique: ↩

  5. 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Springing a Mine”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 527: ↩

  6. 1865, “Tom the Giant—His Wife Jane, and Jack the Tinkeard, as Told by the ‘Drolls’”, in Robert Hunt, editor, Popular Romances of the West of England; or, The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall (First Series), London: John Camden Hotten, […], →OCLC, page 45: ↩

  7. 2025 March 3, Daniel Engber, “The Telepathy Trap”, in The Atlantic ‎, retrieved 15 April 2026: ↩

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