How to Use ply in a Sentence

ply

1 of 2 verb
  • On the eastern edge of the province, whales ply the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
    Outside Online, 25 July 2022
  • Only a fraction of the city’s cabs even ply the streets now.
    Carolyn Said, SFChronicle.com, 22 Jan. 2021
  • For lunch, flag down one of the vendors that ply Zipolite's beach.
    Kyle A. Valenta, Travel + Leisure, 9 Nov. 2021
  • The Fleurieu Arthouse is a great place to watch local artists plying their trade.
    Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 23 Feb. 2023
  • Off the beach, a group of snorkelers ply the fish-rich waters, while the dinghy that brought them to shore has been returned to the cruise ship.
    Star Tribune, 16 Apr. 2021
  • The white vans sometimes stopped at liquor stores on the way to Phoenix to ply people with alcohol.
    Jack Healy, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2023
  • Sellers at the meth bazaar in rural western Afghanistan have long been free to ply their trade.
    Washington Post, 2 May 2022
  • And a van can even be a mobile place of business, the rolling base from which tradesmen and women ply their crafts.
    The Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 18 May 2021
  • What makes the usto ply their craft when their own culture moves beyond them?
    Anna Sherman Maxime Fossat, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Fishing vessels that ply the high seas often are away for many months at a time.
    National Geographic, 25 Nov. 2020
  • The drift boat was conceived to ply its icy waters, and the area is full of history and characters.
    Andy Nelson, oregonlive, 12 Sep. 2020
  • And each comes with a butler to ply you with refreshing cocktails.
    Jennifer Kester, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Every artisan should have the best tools available to ply their trade.
    Gary Singer, sun-sentinel.com, 19 Nov. 2020
  • The men bent the fence post into the shape of a shepherds hook and began plying the bottom of the small farm pond in hopes of snagging Haack’s buck.
    Travis Hall, Field & Stream, 20 Dec. 2023
  • The source of the trouble lay farther away in the oil-rich Persian Gulf, where millions of Egyptian migrants ply their trades.
    Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Puzon’s, on the other hand, was a throwback, a small storefront where a craftsman would ply his trade in plain sight.
    Paul Eisenberg, chicagotribune.com, 18 Oct. 2020
  • But the grandmother’s solely visual cameo may still ply misty from you.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 6 July 2023
  • The multi-brand retailer has been plying this trade for 2,500 years.
    Maria Halkias, Dallas News, 20 Apr. 2023
  • In Phnom Penh’s museum, the skulls are stacked in aquarium tanks: grim toys for hooks to ply free from the rubble.
    New York Times, 14 July 2022
  • Some New Yorkers who ply the longest subway route say the city feels unmoored.
    New York Times, 8 Aug. 2022
  • He’s never been an excuse maker, just a man that continues to ply his trade with a smile.
    Calvin Watkins, Dallas News, 11 June 2021
  • His solution was to fasten the younger kids, 4 and nearly 2 years old, into their car seats, ply them with ice cream, and cue Shrek 2 on the videoscreen in the van.
    Lauren Smiley, Wired, 22 June 2021
  • The rest walk, bicycle or take the electric buses that ply the narrow, cobbled streets of the city’s old quarter.
    New York Times, 28 Feb. 2021
  • For the underground chemists who used to operate on the fringes of the law to ply their trade in the psychedelic industry, that’s a very good thing.
    John Semley, The New Republic, 8 Mar. 2021
  • The steamer was designed for river service, to ply the length of the Columbia River.
    David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 15 May 2022
  • The woman said McWilliams attempted to ply her with alcohol and, later, the men raped her while smacking her.
    Freep.com, 10 Apr. 2021
  • Workers in the arts, desperate to ply their craft and earn an income, are ever yearning when asked what next fall could look like.
    Photographs By Dina Litovsky, Victor Llorente and Daniel Arnold Michael Paulson, Elizabeth A. Harris and Graham Bowley, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2020
  • As do fishermen who ply the waters off Ecuador and Peru.
    Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Up and down the river basin, those who depend on it were watching the forecasts: A towboat captain who has plied the river for decades.
    USA TODAY, 10 Sep. 2023
  • Fortunately no one was walking by just then, but one of the tourist boats that constantly ply the canals had just passed.
    BostonGlobe.com, 5 June 2021
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ply

2 of 2 noun
  • Shop all of Maskc's KN95 and three-ply face masks here.
    Christina Butan, PEOPLE.com, 24 Sep. 2021
  • These use a two-ply polyester cloth and have elastic loops for the ears.
    Austin Irwin, Car and Driver, 8 Dec. 2020
  • And people are gonna snap 'em up like the last roll of two-ply at Kroger.
    Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press, 17 Mar. 2020
  • And people are gonna snap ’em up like the last roll of two-ply at Walmart.
    Tribune News Service, cleveland, 28 Mar. 2020
  • Inside the ball is a high-tech three-ply polyurethane bladder.
    Popular Mechanics, 1 Feb. 2018
  • The feeling is a little like driving on bias-ply tires.
    Dan Neil, Car and Driver, 2 June 2020
  • This stainless steel set of pots and pans is triple-ply and oven-safe up to 450 degrees.
    Valerie Li Stack, USA TODAY, 14 Oct. 2020
  • The longevity of this treadmill is promising thanks in large part to the thick three-ply running belt.
    Megan Oster, chicagotribune.com, 10 Apr. 2021
  • This process twists the wool fibers into a single-ply rope-like structure.
    Scott Douglas, Outside Online, 14 Aug. 2022
  • Smith cautions that the bias-ply Hoosiers will take a few laps to heat up, and I'm sent off to figure the rest out for myself.
    Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 2 Oct. 2022
  • Gimmicky marketers use two- or three-ply yarns to double or triple the thread count.
    Lexie Sachs, Good Housekeeping, 31 May 2022
  • Until around 1970, almost all cars and trucks rolled on bias-ply tires.
    Andy Kessler, WSJ, 4 June 2017
  • The toilet paper is just a fun bonus, but adding on to that, the toilet paper is even two-ply.
    Alex Harrison, Cincinnati.com, 19 Mar. 2020
  • Three-ply disposable face masks cost as little as $10 for a box of 50.
    Peter Krouse, cleveland, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Five-ply and copper-core pans cost more, but aren’t that much better.
    Marni Jameson | Contributing Writer, NOLA.com, 13 Oct. 2020
  • For some obsessives, those old-school, thick-ply, blocky hoodies are the holy grail.
    Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 31 May 2021
  • These two-ply face masks are made of a cotton-and-elastane shell and a cotton lining.
    Shari Uyehara, NBC News, 1 Feb. 2021
  • Custom Ink makes masks that are a single-ply blend of 95% cotton and 5% spandex.
    Zee Krstic, Good Housekeeping, 15 July 2020
  • The bias ply is easier to retread while the radial is lighter.
    John Cox, USA TODAY, 22 Oct. 2017
  • In each stall, a long metal bar held a half-dozen rolls of single-ply toilet paper.
    Scott Craven, azcentral, 24 June 2019
  • This simple one-ply car cover comes in a bevy of sizes to fit mid-size sedans, large SUVS, and many in between.
    Talon Homer, Popular Mechanics, 22 June 2022
  • The three-ply masks come in a pack of 50 assorted prints and are recommended for children ages five to 14.
    Christina Butan, PEOPLE.com, 25 Aug. 2021
  • Two-ply yarn means a thread that is made up of two smaller strands that have been twisted together.
    Lexie Sachs, Good Housekeeping, 31 May 2022
  • The ply, or number of threads wrapped together, and fiber choice make a difference, too.
    Kelley Carter, ELLE Decor, 10 June 2020
  • Those three-ply masks will corral the residual odors of your late-night anchovy-and-onion pizza.
    Star Tribune, 15 Nov. 2020
  • That hasn't changed since Handley and that is what Rodgers, skin as thick as one-ply, might be walking into.
    Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2023
  • Ply: Sheets can be woven from single-ply or multi-ply threads.
    Madeleine Luckel, Vogue, 9 July 2017
  • The ply, or number of threads wrapped together, as well as fiber choice makes a difference, too.
    Hannah Morrill, ELLE Decor, 15 Nov. 2018
  • The other plies mirth and throws one hell of an unreal supper party.
    Lisa Kennedy, The Know, 16 Feb. 2017
  • This 50-pack of three-ply disposable masks have been a reader favorite for months and are an easy way to protect yourself and others from the spread of the virus.
    Julianne Ross, CNN Underscored, 10 Sep. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ply.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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