What does PLEDGE mean?

Definitions for PLEDGE
plɛdʒpledge

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word PLEDGE.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. pledgenoun

    a deposit of personal property as security for a debt

    "his saxophone was in pledge"

  2. pledgenoun

    someone accepted for membership but not yet fully admitted to the group

  3. pledge, toastnoun

    a drink in honor of or to the health of a person or event

  4. assurance, pledgeverb

    a binding commitment to do or give or refrain from something

    "an assurance of help when needed"; "signed a pledge never to reveal the secret"

  5. pledge, plightverb

    promise solemnly and formally

    "I pledge that I will honor my wife"

  6. pledge, subscribeverb

    pay (an amount of money) as a contribution to a charity or service, especially at regular intervals

    "I pledged $10 a month to my favorite radio station"

  7. toast, drink, pledge, salute, wassailverb

    propose a toast to

    "Let us toast the birthday girl!"; "Let's drink to the New Year"

  8. pledgeverb

    give as a guarantee

    "I pledge my honor"

  9. pledgeverb

    bind or secure by a pledge

    "I was pledged to silence"

Wiktionary

  1. pledgenoun

    A solemn promise to do something.

  2. pledgenoun

    A person who has taken a pledge of allegiance to a college fraternity, but not yet formally approved.

  3. pledgenoun

    A security to guarantee payment of a debt.

  4. pledgenoun

    A drinking toast.

  5. pledgenoun

    (the pledge): A promise to abstain from drinking alcohol.

  6. pledgeverb

    To make a solemn promise (to do something).

  7. pledgeverb

    To deposit something as a security; to pawn.

  8. Etymology: From plege, from plege, from plege (Modern pleige) from plevium, plebium, from plebire "to pledge", of origin, from *, from plegō, from dlegh-. Akin to pflegan, plegan, pleon. More at plight.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Pledgenoun

    Etymology: pleige, Fr. pieggio, Italian.

    These men at the first were only pitied; the great humility, zeal and devotion, which appeared to be in them, was in all men’s opinion a pledge of their harmless meaning. Richard Hooker.

    If none appear to prove upon thy person
    Thy heinous, manifest and many treasons;
    There is my pledge, I’ll prove it on thy heart. William Shakespeare.

    That voice their liveliest pledge
    Of hope in fears and dangers. John Milton.

    Money is necessary both for counters and for pledges, and carrying with it even reckoning and security. John Locke.

    Hymen shall be aton’d, shall join two hearts,
    And Aribert shall be the pledge of peace. Nicholas Rowe.

    What purpose could there be of treason, when the Guianians offered to leave pledges, six for one. Walter Raleigh.

    Good sureties will we have for thy return,
    And at thy pledges peril keep thy day. Dryden.

  2. To Pledgeverb

    Etymology: pleiger, Fr. pieggiare, Italian.

    Asleep and naked as an Indian lay,
    An honest factor stole a gem away;
    He pledg’d it to the knight; the knight had wit,
    So kept the diamond. Alexander Pope.

    I accept her;
    And here to pledge my vow, I give my hand. William Shakespeare.

    The fellow, that
    Parts bread with him, and pledges
    The breath of him in a divided draught,
    Is th’ readiest man to kill him. William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.

    To you noble lord of Westmoreland.
    —— I pledge your grace. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

    That flexanimous orator began the king of Homebia’s health; he presently pledg’d it. James Howell, Vocal Forest.

ChatGPT

  1. pledge

    A pledge is a formal commitment or promise made by an individual or group to fulfill a specific obligation or task. It is a solemn declaration to fulfill a duty, often accompanied by a sense of dedication and loyalty. Pledges can be made in various contexts, such as personal, social, professional, or legal, and are intended to demonstrate a strong commitment and reliability to the stated cause or objective.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Pledgenoun

    the transfer of possession of personal property from a debtor to a creditor as security for a debt or engagement; also, the contract created between the debtor and creditor by a thing being so delivered or deposited, forming a species of bailment; also, that which is so delivered or deposited; something put in pawn

  2. Pledgenoun

    a person who undertook, or became responsible, for another; a bail; a surety; a hostage

  3. Pledgenoun

    a hypothecation without transfer of possession

  4. Pledgenoun

    anything given or considered as a security for the performance of an act; a guarantee; as, mutual interest is the best pledge for the performance of treaties

  5. Pledgenoun

    a promise or agreement by which one binds one's self to do, or to refrain from doing, something; especially, a solemn promise in writing to refrain from using intoxicating liquors or the like; as, to sign the pledge; the mayor had made no pledges

  6. Pledgenoun

    a sentiment to which assent is given by drinking one's health; a toast; a health

  7. Pledgenoun

    to deposit, as a chattel, in pledge or pawn; to leave in possession of another as security; as, to pledge one's watch

  8. Pledgenoun

    to give or pass as a security; to guarantee; to engage; to plight; as, to pledge one's word and honor

  9. Pledgenoun

    to secure performance of, as by a pledge

  10. Pledgenoun

    to bind or engage by promise or declaration; to engage solemnly; as, to pledge one's self

  11. Pledgenoun

    to invite another to drink, by drinking of the cup first, and then handing it to him, as a pledge of good will; hence, to drink the health of; to toast

  12. Etymology: [Cf. OF. pleiger to give security. See Pledge, n.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Pledge

    plej, n. something given as a security: one who becomes surety for another: a sentiment of goodwill or friendship expressed by drinking together.—v.t. to give as security: to engage for by promise: to invite to drink by partaking of the cup first: to drink to the health of.—ns. Pledgee′, the person to whom a thing is pledged; Pledg′er.—Pledge card, a card given, as a remembrancer, to a person who has signed the total abstinence pledge; Pledge cup, a cup for drinking pledges.—Hold in pledge, to keep as security; Put in pledge, to pawn; Take, or Sign, the pledge, to give a written promise to abstain from intoxicating liquor. [O. Fr. plege (Fr. pleige); prob. L. præbēre, to afford.]

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. PLEDGE

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pledge is ranked #61745 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Pledge surname appeared 325 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Pledge.

    56.6% or 184 total occurrences were Black.
    34.4% or 112 total occurrences were White.
    8% or 26 total occurrences were of two or more races.

British National Corpus

  1. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'PLEDGE' in Verbs Frequency: #1080

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce PLEDGE?

How to say PLEDGE in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of PLEDGE in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of PLEDGE in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of PLEDGE in a Sentence

  1. Donald Duncan:

    In 1997 we were the fastest growing manufacturing metro area in the country and four years later it collapsed, what you can see on the ground today is 3,000 job openings. China's emergence as the world's low-cost producer and export superpower following its World Trade Organization entry in 2001 dealt a heavy blow to traditional industrial communities such as Hickory. Economists David Autor, David Dorn and Gordon Hanson have tried to separate the impact of trade from other factors affecting U.S. manufacturing employment and they estimate that between 1990 and 2007 Hickory lost 16 percent of its manufacturing jobs just due to surging imports from China. DEEP SCARS. Buffeted by other headwinds, such as the 1994 North American Free Trade agreement and the lifting of textile quotas in 2004, the area lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs overall, half the total, between 2000 and 2009. Nationally, more than 5 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 2000, a period that also included the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The collapse left deep and still visible scars that help explain the appeal of Trump's pledge to bring back manufacturing's glory days. In Hickory, disability rolls soared more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2014, swollen by older workers who struggled to return to the workforce. At the same time, the share of the 25-34 year old in the population fell by almost a fifth between 2000 and 2010. Consequently, even as the unemployment rate tumbled from a peak above 15 percent in 2010 to 4.6 percent today, below the national average, so did the labor force participation rate. It fell from above 68 percent in 2000 to below 59 percent in 2014. Poverty levels doubled. Yet the manufacturing upswing in areas that suffered the most during the downturn is evident. Rust belt states, such as Michigan, Indiana and Ohio that may prove pivotal in the Nov. 8 presidential election, have been adding manufacturing jobs faster than the economy as a whole. Michigan, for example, which lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2009, has since then seen a 25 percent rise, well above the 4 percent gain nationally. Manufacturing employment there is still well below the levels in the 1990s. Economists debate whether returning to that level is realistic given technological advances that have reduced manufacturing's share of the workforce from a high of above 30 percent in the 1950s to around 8 percent today. But they also feel that have already seen the bottom, particularly when it comes to China's impact.

  2. Alex Salmond:

    The Tories (Conservatives) would have to go effectively straight for a vote of confidence ... and we'd be voting against, so if Labour joins us in that pledge, then that's Cameron locked out.

  3. Rebecca Givan:

    If Starbucks really thought that not that many people were interested, then they could pledge neutrality.

  4. Amy Haskins:

    You still stand there silent. And your silence is supporting him in not standing up, you, yourself, served. You didn't pledge an oath to The President. You pledged it to our country, you pledged it to our Constitution. When are you guys going to start standing up and actually be there for us ?

  5. Donald Trump:

    So I signed a letter with the RNC and I said, 'I want to do this as a Republican' - the pledge, as they call it, but I'm not being treated the right way. I'm not being treated properly.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

PLEDGE#1#8886#10000

Translations for PLEDGE

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • ضمان, تَعَهدَArabic
  • garantia, promesa, prometre, penyorar, penyora, empenyorar, juramentCatalan, Valencian
  • zastavitCzech
  • verpfänden, Pfand, zusichern, versprechenGerman
  • juramento, garantía, manda, prometer, jurar, hipotecar, brindis, empeñar, iniciado, iniciadaSpanish
  • pantata, maljapuhe, pantti, kokelas, raittiuslupaus, lupaus, luvata, sitoutuaFinnish
  • promettre, mettre en gage, gageFrench
  • gealltanasScottish Gaelic
  • zálog, fogadalomHungarian
  • ուխտ, գրավArmenian
  • sumpahIndonesian
  • promessa solenne, avallo, impegnarsi, garanzia, giuramento, promettere, pegnoItalian
  • 抵当, 公約, 保証Japanese
  • 서약Korean
  • په‌یمانKurdish
  • spondere, vovereLatin
  • ikrarMalay
  • schacht, plechtig belovenDutch
  • obiecać, zastaw, kaucja, depozyt, złożyć zastaw, obietnicaPolish
  • promessa, prometer, penhor, garantiaPortuguese
  • garanta, legământ, promisiune, promiteRomanian
  • заверять, [[отдать]] в [[залог]], обет, обещание, пообещать, [[отдавать]] в [[залог]], залог, заверить, закладывать, клясться, заложить, обещать, поклясться, зарокRussian
  • závet, завет, завјет, zavjet, обећање, obećanje, залога, zaloga, за́вет, prisega, присегаSerbo-Croatian
  • zavezati se, zapriseči, zaprisega, zaobljubiti se, zastaviti, zaobljubaSlovene
  • underpantSwedish
  • తనఖా, ప్రతిజ్ఞ, ప్రతినTelugu
  • cam kết, thềVietnamese

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"PLEDGE." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 22 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/PLEDGE>.

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    A bristly
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