ap·peal 
(ə-pēl)
(ə-pēl)n.
1. An earnest or urgent request, entreaty, or supplication.
2. A resort to a higher authority or greater power, as for sanction, corroboration, or a decision: an appeal to reason; an appeal to her listener's sympathy.
3. Law
a. A higher court's review of the correctness of a decision by a lower court.
b. A case so reviewed.
c. A request for a higher court to review the decision of a lower court.
4. The power of attracting or of arousing interest: a city with special appeal for museumgoers.
v. ap·pealed, ap·peal·ing, ap·peals
v.intr.
1. To make an earnest or urgent request, as for help.
2. To have recourse, as for corroboration; resort: I appeal to your sense of justice.
3. Law To make or request an appeal.
4. To be attractive or interesting: The idea didn't appeal to me.
v.tr.
Law
Idiom: Law
To request for an appeal of (a case) to a higher court for rehearing.
on appeal
In the process of being appealed; while being appealed.
[Middle English apel, from Old French, from apeler, to appeal, from Latin appellāre, to entreat; see pel-5 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
ap·peal′a·bili·ty n.
ap·peala·ble adj.
ap·pealer n.