reply

Formsreplies, replying, replied

Pluralreplies

1. 1
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To respond in words, spoken or written, especially to a question, request, criticism, or accusation.

   She replied that the rumors were completely untrue.

   When accused, he chose not to reply at all.

   Similaranswer, respond, retort, counter

   Note

   At root, answering is folding back. Middle English replyen came through Old French from Latin replicāre, "to fold back," which later Latin used for "to reply, repeat." Replicate and replica come from the same root. With "to," the verb names what is being answered (reply to my letter). Without it, the verb introduces the words themselves, either quoted ("Sorry I'm late," replied the student) or in a that-clause.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A written or spoken response, given as one turn in a conversation.

   Her reply arrived three days after I wrote.

   The senator's reply dodged the reporter's question entirely.

   Similaranswer, response, rejoinder, retort

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A thing offered or handed over in response to something.

   The only reply they received was an empty envelope.

   His reply to her kindness was a bunch of flowers.

   Similarresponse, answer

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To respond through an action or gesture rather than through words.

   The crowd replied to the speech with thunderous applause.

   Dancers reply to each gesture with a movement of their own.

   Similarrespond, react, answer

   Note

   Sports reporting leans on this sense: a side that scores after conceding has replied, as when Downes and Prendergast "replied for the Owls" in Steve Cowens's Steel City Rivals (2012). Gunfire can reply too, and the participle works as an adjective in "replying gunfire." The construction mirrors the spoken answer, with reply to something and reply with something, but here the with-phrase names an act, not words.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To send a sound back by repeating it, as an echo does.

   The valley replied to the church bells long after they stopped.

   Stone walls reply to a singer's voice with a faint echo.

   Similarecho, answer, resound, reverberate

   Note

   Here the Latin "fold back" behind the ordinary verb is heard most literally. Later Latin replicāre meant "to repeat" as well as "to reply," and an echo is a sound sent back the way it came. The subject is usually a place or surface, such as a valley or a stone wall. The verb is intransitive, so the sound being echoed follows "to."

6. 6
   nouncountable

   An attack launched in return against an attacking force.

   The general ordered a swift reply against the advancing troops.

   The fortress fell before any reply could be mounted.

   Similarcounterattack, riposte, retaliation, counterstrike

7. 7
   nounUScountable

   A court document in which a party responds to the opposing side's responsive declaration and, in some cases, to its answer.

   Counsel filed a reply within the time allowed by the court.

   The plaintiff's reply challenged the new defenses raised in the answer.

   Note

   A US litigation term with a fixed place in the order of filings. One party submits a responsive declaration, or sometimes an answer, and the reply is the document that comes back against it. Lawyers file a reply the way they file any pleading. It is a named document, not just any response, so a letter written "in reply" is not this sense.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   In music, the restatement of a melodic figure by a different voice or instrument.

   The reply entered in a higher key, echoing the opening subject.

   Bach weaves each reply against the original figure with great skill.

   Similaranswer

   Note

   Fugue is where this term is at home. After one voice states the subject, the leading figure, the reply restates it in another voice, transposed into a related key. Answer is the equivalent term for the same moment: a figure stated and then given back. It is a musical version of the fold-back image inside the word's Latin source.

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