pleadings. The act by which the parties to a cause arrive at that stage of it in their pleadings, that one asserts a fact to be so, and the other denies it. For example, when one party denies the fact pleaded by his antagonist, who has tendered the issue thus, And this he prays may be inquired of by the country, or, And of this he puts himself upon the country, the party denying the fact may immediately subjoin, And the said A B does the like; when the issue is said to be joined.