please
v.v. to make someone feel happy or satisfied. You do this when you give someone what they want or need.
v. to cause a feeling of satisfaction or happiness in another person. Transitive in its primary sense, though it can function intransitively to describe acting in accordance with one's own will.
I really want to please my parents with my grades.
The chef worked hard to please the food critics during the opening night of the restaurant.
While it is impossible to please every stakeholder simultaneously, the committee aimed for a compromise that addressed the most urgent concerns of the local community.
From Middle English plesen, plaisen, borrowed from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- (“pleasingness, permission”). In this sense, displaced native Old English līcian, whence Modern English like.
Short for if you please, an intransitive, ergative form taken from if it please you which is a calque of French s'il vous plaît, which replaced pray. If it please you is a present subjunctive form, but most current uses of please are not parsed that way.
Semantic loan from German bitte (“please; excuse me”).
The verb is transitive and takes a direct object. When used intransitively, it often follows 'as' (e.g., 'do as you please').
It pleases to meIt pleases meThe verb is transitive and takes a direct object; it does not require the preposition 'to' before the person being pleased.