to hold an informal discussion, often refers to discussions between enemies as when discussing terms of truces or treaties
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Uses:
After a parley in the hall, someone came upstairs, and Vronsky’s steps could be heard passing the drawing-room.
Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (1878)
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One night towards eleven o'clock they were awakened by the noise of a horse pulling up outside their door. The servant opened the garret-window and parleyed for some time with a man in the street below.
Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary
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They saw the white flag at the foremast come down half-way, and then mount again to the masthead.
"That means they want a parley," said the lieutenant-commander; he had never used the word "parley" before in his life, but it was the only one which suited the occasion.
Cecil Scott Forester. The African Queen, p.170 (1935)