Plane-Tree – Pledget

Plane-Tree

PLA'NE-TREE, noun [Latin platanus.] A tree of the genus Platanus. The oriental plane-tree is a native of Asia; it rises with a straight smooth branching stem to a great highth, with palmated leaves and long pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small close sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and collected into round, rough, hard balls. The occidental plane-tree which grows to a great highth, is a native of noun America; it is called also button-wood.

Planed

PLA'NED, participle passive Made smooth with a plane; leveled.

Planet

PLAN'ET, noun [Latin planeta; Gr. wandering, to wander, allied to Latin planus. See Plant.] A celestial body which revolves about the sun or other center, or a body revolving about another planet as its center. The planets which revolve about the sun as their center, are called primary planets; those which revolve about other planets as their center, and with them revolve about the sun, are called secondary planets, satellites or moons. The primary planets are named Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Herschell. Four smaller planets, denominated by some, asteroids, namely, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, have recently been discovered between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Herschell, being without the earth's orbit, are sometimes called the superior planets; Venus and Mercury, being within the earth's orbit, are called inferior planets. The planets are opake bodies which receive their light from the sun. They are so named from their motion or revolution, in distinction from the fixed stars, and are distinguished from the latter by their not twinkling.

Planet-Struck

PLAN'ET-STRUCK, adjective Affected by the influence of planets; blasted.

Planetarium

PLANETA'RIUM, noun An astronomical machine which, by the movement of its parts, represents the motions and orbits of the planets, agreeable to the Copernican system.

Planetary

PLAN'ETARY, adjective Pertaining to the planets; as planetary inhabitants; planetary motions.

1. Consisting of planets; as a planetary system.

2. Under the dominion or influence of a planet; as a planetary hour. [Astrology.]

3. Produced by planets; as planetary plague or influence.

4. Having the nature of a planet; erratic or revolving.

Planetary days, the days of the week as shared among the planets, each having its day, as we name the days of the week after the planets.

Planeted

PLAN'ETED, adjective Belonging to planets.

Planetical

PLANET'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to planets. [Not used.]

Planifolious

PLANIFO'LIOUS, adjective [Latin planus, plain, and folium, leaf.]

In botany, a planifolious flower is one made up of plain leaves, set together in circular rows round the center. [See Planipetalous.]

Planimetric

PLANIMET'RIC

PLANIMET'RICAL, adjective Pertaining to the mensuration of plain surfaces.

Planimetrical

PLANIMET'RICAL, a. Pertaining to the mensuration of plain surfaces.

Planimetry

PLANIM'ETRY, noun [Latin planus, plain, and Gr. to measure.]

The mensuration of plain surfaces, or that part of geometry which regards lines and plain figures, without considering their highth or depth.

Planipetalous

PLANIPET'ALOUS, adjective [Latin planus, plain, and Gr. a petal.]

In botany, flat-leafed, as when the small flowers are hollow only at the bottom, but flat upwards, as in dandelion and succory.

Planish

PLAN'ISH, verb transitive [from plane.] To make smooth or plain; to polish; used by manufacturers.

Planished

PLAN'ISHED, participle passive Made smooth.

Planishing

PLAN'ISHING, participle present tense Making smooth; polishing.

Planisphere

PLAN'ISPHERE, noun [Latin planus, plain, and sphere.] A sphere projected on a plane, in which sense, maps in which are exhibited the meridians and other circles, are planispheres.

Plank

PLANK, noun A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. In America, broad pieces of sawed timber which are not more than an inch or an inch and a quarter thick, are called boards; like pieces from an inch and a half to three or four inches thick, are called planks. Sometimes pieces more than four inches thick are called planks.

PLANK, verb transitive To cover or lay with planks; as, to plank a floor or a ship.

Planned

PLAN'NED, participle passive Devised; schemed.

Planner

PLAN'NER, noun One who plans or forms a plan; a projector.

Planning

PLAN'NING, participle present tense Scheming; devising; making a plan.

Plano-Conical

PLANO-CON'ICAL, adjective [ plain and conical.]

Plain or level on one side and conical on the other.

Plano-Convex

PLANO-CON'VEX, adjective [plain and convex.] Plain or flat on one side and convex on the other; as a plano-convex lens.

Plano-Subulate

PLANO-SUB'ULATE, adjective [See Subulate.] Smooth and awl-shaped.

Planohorizontal

PLANO'HORIZON'TAL, adjective Having a level horizontal surface or position.

Plant

PLANT, noun [Latin planta; splendeo, splendor.]

1. A vegetable; an organic body, destitute of sense and spontaneous motion, adhering to another body in such a manner as to draw from it its nourishment, and having the power of propagating itself by seeds; 'whose seed is in itself.' Genesis 1:1. This definition may not be perfectly correct, as it respects all plants, for some marine plants grow without being attached to any fixed body.

The woody or dicotyledonous plants consist of three parts; the bark or exterior coat, which covers the wood; the wood which is hard and constitutes the principal part; and the pith or center of the stem. In monocotyledonous plants, the ligneous or fibrous parts, and the pithy or parenchymatous, are equally distributed through the whole internal substance; and in the lower plants, funguses, sea weed, etc. the substance is altogether parenchymatous. By means of proper vessels, the nourishing juices are distributed to every part of the plant In its most general sense, plant comprehends all vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, etc. In popular language, the word is generally applied to the smaller species of vegetables.

2. A sapling.

3. In Scripture, a child; a descendant; the inhabitant of a country. Psalms 144:12. Jeremiah 48:32.

4. The sole of the foot. [Little used.]

Sea-plant, a plant that grows in the sea or in salt water; sea weed.

Sensitive plant a plant that shrinks on being touched, the mimosa.

PLANT, verb transitive To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maiz.

1. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree or a vegetable with roots.

2. To engender; to set the germ of any thing that may increase.

It engenders choler, planteth anger.

3. To set; to fix.

His standard planted on Laurentum's towers.

4. To settle; to fix the first inhabitants; to establish; as, to plant a colony.

5. To furnish with plants; to lay out and prepare with plants; as, to plant a garden or an orchard.

6. To set and direct or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort.

7. To introduce and establish; as, to plant christianity among the heathen.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:7.

8. To unite to Christ and fix in a state of fellowship with him. Psalms 92:13.

PLANT, verb intransitive To perform the act of planting.

Plant-Louse

PLANT'-LOUSE, noun An insect that infests plants; a vine fretter; the puceron.

Plantable

PLANT'ABLE, adjective Capable of being planted.

Plantage

PLANT'AGE, noun [Latin plantago.] An herb, or herbs in general. [Not in use.]

Plantain

PLANT'AIN, noun [Latin plantago.] A plant of the genus Plantago, of several species. The water plantain is of the genus Alisma.

PLANT'AIN

Plantain-Tree

PLANT'AIN-TREE, noun A tree of the genus Musa, the most remarkable species of which are, the paradisiaca or plantain, and the sapietum or banana tree. The plantain rises with a soft stem fifteen or twenty feet high, and the fruit is a substitute for bread.

Plantal

PLANT'AL, adjective Belonging to plants. [Not used.]

Plantation

PLANTA'TION, noun [Latin plantatio, from planto, to plant.]

1. The act of planting or setting in the earth for growth.

2. The place planted; applied to ground planted with trees, as an orchard or the like.

3. In the United States and the West Indies, a cultivated estate; a farm. In the United States, this word is applied to an estate, a tract of land occupied and cultivated, in those states only where the labor is performed by slaves, and where the land is more or less appropriated to the culture of tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton, that is, from Maryland to Georgia inclusive, on the Atlantic, and in the western states where the land is appropriated to the same articles or to the culture of the sugar cane. From Maryland, northward and eastward, estates in land are called farms.

4. An original settlement in a new country; a town or village planted.

While these plantations were forming in Connecticut--

5. A colony.

6. A first planting; introduction; establishment; as the plantation of christianity in England.

PLANT'-CANE, noun In the West Indies, the original plants of the sugar cane, produced from germs placed in the ground; or canes of the first growth, in distinction from the ratoons, or sprouts from the roots of canes which have been cut.

Planted

PLANT'ED, participle passive Set in the earth for propagation; set; fixed; introduced; established.

1. Furnished with seeds or plants for growth; as a planted field.

2. Furnished with the first inhabitants; settled; as territory planted with colonists.

3. Filled or furnished with what is new.

A man in all the world's new fashion planted [See Def.3.]

Planter

PLANT'ER, noun One that plants, sets, introduces or establishes; as a planter of maiz; a planter of vines; the planters of a colony.

1. One that settles in a new or uncultivated territory; as the first planters in Virginia.

2. One who owns a plantation; used in the West Indies and southern states of America.

3. One that introduces and establishes.

The apostles were the first planters of christianity.

Plantership

PLANT'ERSHIP, noun The business of a planter, or the management of a plantation, as in the West Indies.

Planticle

PLANT'ICLE, noun A young plant or plant in embryo.

Planting

PLANT'ING, participle present tense Setting in the earth for propagation; setting; settling; introducing; establishing.

PLANT'ING, noun The act or operation of setting in the ground for propagation, as seeds, trees, shrubs, etc.

Plash

PLASH, noun [Gr. superabundant moisture.]

1. A small collection of standing water; a puddle.

2. The branch of a tree partly cut or lopped and bound to other branches.

PLASH, verb intransitive To dabble in water; usually splash.

PLASH, verb transitive [Latin plico, to fold.] To interweave branches; as, to plash a hedge or quicksets. [In New England, to splice.]

Plashing

PLASH'ING, participle present tense Cutting and interweaving, as branches in a hedge.

PLASH'ING, noun The act or operation of cutting and lopping small trees and interweaving them, as in hedges.

Plashy

PLASH'Y, adjective Watery; abounding with puddles.

Plasm

PLASM, noun [Gr. to form.] A mold or matrix in which any thing is cast or formed to a particular shape. [Little used.]

Plasma

PLAS'MA, noun A silicious mineral of a color between grass green and leek green, occurring in angular pieces in beds, associated with common chalcedony, and among the ruins of Rome.

Plasmatic

PLASMAT'IC

PLASMAT'ICAL, adjective Giving shape; having the power of giving form.

Plasmatical

PLASMAT'ICAL, a. Giving shape; having the power of giving form.

Plaster

PL'ASTER, noun [Latin emplastrum; Gr. to daub or smear, properly to lay or spread on; to daub or to fashion, mold or shape.]

1. A composition of lime, water and sand, well mixed into a kind of paste and used for coating walls and partitions of houses. This composition when dry becomes hard, but still retains the name of plaster plaster is sometimes made of different materials, as chalk, gypsum, etc. and is sometimes used to parget the whole surface of a building.

2. In pharmacy, an external application of a harder consistence than an ointment, to be spread, according to different circumstances, either on linen or leather.

Plaster of Paris, a composition of several species of gypsum dug near Montmartre, near Paris in France, used in building and in casting busts and statues. In popular language, this name is applied improperly to plaster-stone, or to any species of gypsum.

PL'ASTER, verb transitive To overlay with plaster as the partitions of a house, walls, etc.

1. To cover with plaster as a wound.

2. In popular language, to smooth over; to cover or conceal defects or irregularities.

Plaster-Stone

PL'ASTER-STONE, noun Gypsum, which see. This when pulverized is extensively used as a manure.

Plastered

PL'ASTERED, participle passive Overlaid with plaster.

Plasterer

PL'ASTERER, noun One that overlays with plaster.

1. One that makes figures in plaster.

Plastering

PL'ASTERING, participle present tense Covering with or laying on plaster.

PL'ASTERING, noun The act or operation of overlaying with plaster.

1. The plaster-work of a building; a covering of plaster.

Plastic

PLAS'TIC, adjective [Gr. to form.] Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter; as the plastic hand of the Creator; the plastic virtue of nature.

Plasticity

PLASTIC'ITY, noun The quality of giving form or shape to matter.

Plastron

PLAS'TRON, noun [See Plaster.] A piece of leather stuffed; used by fencers to defend the body against pushes.

Plat

PLAT, verb transitive [from plait, or plat flat.]

To weave; to form by texture. Matthew 27:1.

PLAT'

Platane

PLA'TANE, noun [Latin platanus.] The planetree, which see.

Platband

PLAT'BAND, noun A border of flowers in a garden, along a wall or the side of a parterre.

1. In architecture, a flat square molding whose highth much exceeds its projecture, such as the faces of an architrave.

2. The lintel of a door or window.

3. A list or fillet between the flutings of a column.

Plate

PLATE, noun [Latin Latus, with the radical sense of laid, spread.]

1. A piece of metal, flat or extended in breadth.

2. Armor of plate composed of broad pieces, and thus distinguished from mail.

3. A piece of wrought silver, as a dish or other shallow vessel; hence, vessels of silver; wrought silver in general. plate by the laws of some states, is subject to a tax by the ounce.

4. A small shallow vessel, made of silver or other metal, or of earth glazed and baked, from which provisions are eaten at table. A wooden plate is called a trencher.

5. The prize given for the best horse in a race.

6. In architecture, the piece of timber which supports the ends of the rafters. [See Platform.]

PLATE, verb transitive To cover or overlay with plate or with metal; used particularly of silver; as plated vessels.

1. To arm with plate or metal for defense; as, to plate sin with gold.

Why plated in habiliments of war?

2. To adorn with place; as a plated harness.

3. To beat into thin flat pieces or lamens.

Plated

PLA'TED, participle passive Covered or adorned with plate; armed with plate; beaten into plates.

Platen

PLAT'EN, noun [from its flatness.] Among printers, the flat part of a press by which the impression is made.

Platey

PLA'TEY, adjective Like a plate; flat.

Platform

PLAT'FORM, noun [plat, flat, form.] The sketch of any thing horizontally delineated; the ichnography.

1. A place laid out after any model.

2. In the military art, an elevation of earth or a floor of wood or stone, on which cannons are mounted to fire on an enemy.

3. In architecture, a row of beams or a piece of timber which supports the timber-work of a roof, and lying on the top of the wall.

This in New England is called the plate.

4. A kind of terrace or broad smooth open walk on the top of a building, as in the oriental houses.

5. In ships, the orlop. [See Orlop.]

6. Any number of planks or other materials forming a floor for any purpose.

7. A plan; a scheme; ground-work.

8. In some of the New England states, an ecclesiastical constitution, or a plan for the government of churches; as the Cambridge or Saybrook platform

Platic aspect, in astrology, a ray cast from one planet to another, not exactly, but within the orbit of its own light.

Platina

PLATI'NA

PLA'TING, participle present tense Overlaying with plate or with a metal; beating into thin lamens.

PLA'TING, noun The art or operation of covering any thing with plate or with a metal, particularly of overlaying a baser metal with a thin plate of silver. The coating of silver is soldered to the metal with tin or a mixture of three parts of silver with one of brass.

Plating

PLA'TING, ppr. Overlaying with plate or with a metal; beating into thin lamens.

PLA'TING, n. The art or operation of covering any thing with plate or with a metal, particularly of overlaying a baser metal with a thin plate of silver. The coating of silver is soldered to the metal with tin or a mixture of three parts of silver with one of brass.

Platiniferous

PLATINIF'EROUS, adjective [platina and fero, to produce.]

Producing patina; as platiniferous sand.

Platinum

PLATI'NUM, noun A metal discovered in the mines of Choco in Peru, nearly of the color of silver, but less bright, and the heaviest of the metals. Its specific gravity is to that of water as 23 to 1. It is harder than iron, undergoes no alteration in air, resists the action of acids and alkalies, is very ductile and capable of being rolled into thin plates.

Platonic

PLATON'IC, adjective Pertaining to Plato the philosopher, or to his philosophy, his school or his opinions.

Platonic love, is a pure spiritual affection subsisting between the sexes, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellencies; a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.

Platonic year, the great year, or a period of time determines by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes. This revolution, which is calculated by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 25, 000 years.

Platonically

PLATON'ICALLY, adverb After the manner of Plato.

Platonism

PLA'TONISM, noun The philosophy of Plato, consisting of three branches, theology, physics and mathematics. Under theology is included moral philosophy. The foundation of Plato's theology is the opinion that there are two eternal, primary, independent and incorruptible principles or causes of all things, and matter, from which all things are made. It was a fundamental maxim with him that from nothing, nothing can proceed. While therefore he held God to be the maker of the universe, he held matter, the substance of which the universe was made, to be eternal.

Platonist

PLA'TONIST

PLA'TONIZE, verb intransitive To adopt the opinions or philosophy of Plato.

PLA'TONIZE, verb transitive To explain on the principles of the Platonic school, or to accommodate to those principles.

Platonize

PLA'TONIZE, v.i. To adopt the opinions or philosophy of Plato.

PLA'TONIZE, v.t. To explain on the principles of the Platonic school, or to accommodate to those principles.

Platonized

PLA'TONIZED, participle passive Accommodated to the philosophy of Plato.

Platonizer

PLA'TONIZER, noun One that adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato.

Platonizing

PLA'TONIZING, participle present tense Adopting the principles of Plato; accommodating to the principles of the Platonic school.

Platoon

PLATOON', noun A small square body of soldiers or musketeers, drawn out of a battalion of foot when they form a hollow square, to strengthen the angles; or a small body acting together, but separate from the main body; as, to fire by platoons.

Platter

PLAT'TER, noun [from plate.] A large shallow dish for holding the provisions of a table.

1. One that plats or forms by weaving. [See Plat.]

Platter-Faced

PLAT'TER-FACED, adjective Having a broad face.

PLAT'TING, participle present tense Weaving; forming by texture.

Platting

PLAT'TING, noun Work done by platting or interweaving.

PLAT, noun [Latin latus; or from the root of place.] A small piece of ground, usually a portion of flat even ground; as a flowery plat; a plat of willows.

PLAT, adjective Plain; flat. [Not used.]

PLAT, adverb Plainly; flatly; downright. [Not used.]

1. Smoothly; evenly. [Not used.]

Platypus

PLAT'YPUS, noun A quadruped of New Holland, whose jaws are elongated into the shape of a duck's bill. The body is covered with thick hair and the feet are webbed.

This animal has been arranged with the Mammalia, but it is now presumed to be oviparous; at least its breasts have not hitherto been observed.

Plaudit

PLAUD'IT, noun [Latin plaudo, to praise, said to be taken from plaudite, a demand of applause by players when they left the stage.]

Applause; praise bestowed.

Plausibility

PLAUSIBIL'ITY, noun s as z. [See Plausible.] Speciousness; superficial appearance of right.

Plausible

PLAUS'IBLE, adjective s as z. [Latin plausibilis, from plaudo, to clap hands in token of approbation; laus, laudo; Eng. loud.]

1. That may be applauded; that may gain favor or approbation; hence, superficially pleasing; apparently right; specious; popular; as a plausible argument; a plausible pretext; a plausible doctrine.

2. Using specious arguments or discourse; as a plausible man.

Plausibleness

PLAUS'IBLENESS, noun Speciousness; show of right or propriety; as the plausibleness of Arminianism.

Plausibly

PLAUS'IBLY, adverb With fair show; speciously; in a matter adapted to gain favor or approbation.

They could talk plausibly about what they did not understand.

Plausive

PLAUS'IVE, adjective Applauding; manifesting praise.

1. Plausible.

Play

PLAY, verb intransitive

1. To use any exercise for pleasure or recreation; to do something not as a task or for profit, but for amusement; as, to play at cricket.

The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play Exodus 32:6.

2. To sport; to frolick; to frisk.

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day,

Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?

3. To toy; to act with levity.

4. To trifle; to act wantonly and thoughtlessly.

Men are apt to play with their healths and their lives as they do with their clothes.

5. To do something fanciful; to give a fanciful turn to; as, to play upon words.

6. To make sport, or practice sarcastic merriment.

I would make use of it rather to play upon those I despise, than trifle with those I love.

7. To mock; to practice illusion.

Art thou alive,

Or is it fancy plays upon our eyesight?

8. To contend in a game; as, to play at cards or dice; to play for diversion; to play for money.

9. To practice a trick or deception.

His mother played false with a smith.

10. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute, a violin or a harpsichord.

PLAY, my friend, and charm the charmer.

11. To move, or to move with alternate dilatation and contraction.

The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play

12. To operate; to act. The engines play against a fire.

13. To move irregularly; to wanton.

Ev'n as the waving sedges play with wind.

The setting sun

PLAYs on their shining arms and burnish'd helmets.

All fame is foreign, but of true desert,

PLAYs round the head, but comes not to the heart.

14. To act a part on the stage; to personate a character.

A lord will hear you play to-night.

15. To represent a standing character.

Courts are theaters where some men play

16. To act in any particular character; as, to play the fool; to play the woman; to play the man.

17. To move in any manner; to move one way and another; as any part of a machine.

PLAY, verb transitive To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon or a fire-engine.

1. To use an instrument of music; as, to play the flute or the organ.

2. To act a sportive part or character.

Nature here

Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will

Her virgin fancies.

3. To act or perform by representing a character; as, to play a comedy; to play the part of king Lear.

4. To act; to perform; as, to play our parts well on the stage of life.

5. To perform in contest for amusement or for a prize; as, to play a game at whist.

To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks.

To play on or upon, to deceive; to mock or to trifle with.

1. To give a fanciful turn to.

PLAY, noun Any exercise or series of actions intended for pleasure, amusement or diversion, as at cricket or quoit, or at blind man's buff.

1. Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols.

Two gentle fawns at play

2. Game; gaming; practice of contending for victory, for amusement or for a prize, as at dice, cards or billiards.

3. Practice in any contest; as sword-play.

He was resolved not to speak distinctly, knowing his best play to be in the dark.

John naturally loved rough play

4. Action; use; employment; office.

--But justifies the next who comes in play

5. Practice; action; manner of acting in contest or negotiation; as fair play; foul play

6. A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition in which characters are represented by dialogue and action.

A play ought to be a just image of human nature.

7. Representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy; as, to be at the play He attends every play

8. Performance on an instrument of music.

9. Motion; movement, regular or irregular; as the play of a wheel or piston.

10. State of agitation or discussion.

Many have been sav'd, and many may,

Who never heard this question brought in play

11. Room for motion.

The joints are let exactly into one another, that they have no play between them.

12. Liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display; scope; as, to give full play to mirth. Let the genius have free play

Play-Day

PLA'Y-DAY

PLA'Y-PLEASURE, noun Idle amusement. [Not used.]

Playbill

PLA'YBILL, noun A printed advertisement of a play, with the parts assigned to the actors.

Playbook

PLA'YBOOK, noun A book of dramatic compositions.

Playdebt

PLA'YDEBT, noun A debt contracted by gaming.

Played

PLA'YED, participle passive Acted; performed; put in motion.

Player

PLA'YER, noun One who plays in any game or sport.

1. An idler.

2. An actor of dramatic scenes; one whose occupation is to imitate characters on the stage.

3. A mimic.

4. One who performs on an instrument of music.

5. A gamester.

6. One that acts a part in a certain manner.

Playfellow

PLA'YFELLOW, noun A companion in amusements or sports.

Playful

PLA'YFUL, adjective Sportive; given to levity; as a playful child.

1. Indulging a sportive fancy; as a playful genius.

Playfully

PLA'YFULLY, adverb In a sportive manner.

Playfulness

PLA'YFULNESS, noun Sportiveness.

Playgame

PLA'YGAME, noun Play of children.

Playhouse

PLA'YHOUSE, noun A house appropriated to the exhibition of dramatic compositions; a theater.

Playing-Day

PLA'YING-DAY, noun A day given to play or diversion; a day exempt from work.

Playmate

PLA'YMATE, noun A playfellow; a companion in diversions.

Playsome

PLA'YSOME, adjective Playful; wanton.

Playsomeness

PLA'YSOMENESS, noun Playfulness; wantonness.

Plaything

PLA'YTHING, noun A toy; any thing that serves to amuse.

A child knows his nurse, and by degrees the playthings of a little more advanced age.

Playwright

PLA'YWRIGHT, noun A maker of plays.

Plea

PLEA, noun [Latin lis, litis.]

1. In law, that which is alleged by a party in support of his demand; but in a more limited and technical sense, the answer of the defendant to the plaintiff's declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant's plea Pleas are dilatory, or pleas to the action. Dilatory pleas, are to the jurisdiction of the court, to the disability of the plaintiff, or in abatement. Pleas to the action are an answer to the merits of the complaint, which confesses or denies it. Pleas that deny the plaintiff's complaint or demand, are the general issue, which denies the whole declaration; or special pleas in bar, which state something which precludes the plaintiff's right of recovery.

2. A cause in court; a lawsuit, or a criminal process; as the pleas of the crown; the court of common pleas.

The supreme judicial court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal and mixed.

3. That which is alleged in defense or justification; an excuse; an apology; as the tyrant's plea

When such occasions are,

No plea must serve; 'tis cruelty to spare.

4. Urgent prayer or entreaty.

Pleach

PLEACH, verb transitive [Latin plico.] To bend; to interweave. [Not in use.]

Plead

PLEAD, verb intransitive [See Plea.] In a general sense, to argue in support of a claim, or in defense against the claim of another.

1. In law, to present an answer to the declaration of a plaintiff; to deny the plaintiff's declaration and demand, or to allege facts which show that he ought not to recover in the suit. The plaintiff declares or alleges; the defendant pleads to his declaration. The king or the state prosecutes an offender, and the offender pleads not guilty, or confesses the charge.

2. To urge reasons for or against; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead in his favor; to plead with a judge or with a father.

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! Job 16:21.

3. To supplicate with earnestness.

4. To urge; to press by operating on the passions.

Since you can love, and yet your error see,

The same resistless power may plead for me.

PLEAD, verb transitive To discuss, defend and attempt to maintain by arguments or reasons offered to the tribunal or person who has the power of determining; as, to plead a cause before a court or jury. In this sense, argue is more generally used by lawyers.

1. To allege or adduce in proof, support or vindication. The law of nations may be pleaded in favor of the rights of embassadors.

2. To offer in excuse.

I will neither plead my age nor sickness in excuse of faults.

3. To allege and offer in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; as, to plead usury; to plead a statute of limitations.

4. In Scripture, to plead the cause of the righteous, as God, is to avenge or vindicate them against enemies, or to redress their grievances. Isaiah 51:22.

Pleadable

PLE'ADABLE, adjective That may be pleaded; that may be alleged in proof, defense or vindication; as a right or privilege pleadable at law.

Pleaded

PLE'ADED, participle passive Offered or urged in defense; alleged in proof or support.

Pleader

PLE'ADER, noun One who argues in a court of justice.

1. One that forms pleas or pleadings; as a special pleader

2. One that offers reasons for or against; one that attempts to maintain by arguments.

So fair a pleader any cause may gain.

Pleading

PLE'ADING, participle present tense Offering in defense; supporting by arguments or reasons; supplicating.

PLE'ADING, noun The art of supporting by arguments, or of reasoning to persuade.

Pleadings

PLE'ADINGS, noun In law, the mutual altercations between the plaintiff and defendant, or written statements of the parties in support of their claims, comprehending the declaration, count or narration of the plaintiff, the plea of the defendant in reply, the replication of the plaintiff to the defendant's plea, the defendant's rejoinder, the plaintiff's sur-rejoinder, the defendant's rebutter, the plaintiff's sur-rebutter, etc. till the question is brought to issue, that is, to rest on a single point.

Pleasance

PLEASANCE, noun plez'ance. [See Please.] Gayety; pleasantry; merriment.

Pleasant

PLEASANT, adjective plez'ant.

1. Pleasing; agreeable; grateful to the mind or to the senses; as a pleasant ride; a pleasant voyage; a pleasant view. Light is pleasant to the eye; an orange is pleasant to the taste; harmony is pleasant to the ear; a rose is pleasant to the smell.

How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psalms 133:1.

2. Cheerful; enlivening; as pleasant society or company.

3. Gay; lively; humorous; sportive; as a pleasant companion.

4. Trifling; adapted rather to mirth than use.

5. Giving pleasure; gratifying.

This word expresses less than delightful, to the mind, and delicious, to the taste.

Pleasantly

PLEASANTLY, adverb plez'antly. In such a manner as to please or gratify.

1. Gayly; merrily; in good humor.

2. Lightly; ludicrously.

Pleasantness

PLEASANTNESS, noun plez'antness. State of being pleasant or agreeable; as the pleasantness of a situation.

1. Cheerfulness; gayety; merriment; as the pleasantness of youth.

Pleasantry

PLEASANTRY, noun plez'antry. Gayety; merriment.

The harshness of reasoning is not a little softened and smoothed by the infusions of mirth and pleasantry

1. Sprightly saying; lively talk; effusion of humor.

The grave abound in pleasantries, the dull in repartees and points of wit.

Please

PLEASE, verb transitive s as z. [Latin placere, placeo.]

1. To excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to gratify; as, to please the taste; to please the mind.

Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son. Genesis 34:18.

Leave such to trifle with more grace than ease,

Whom folly pleases, and whose follies please

2. To satisfy; to content.

What next I bring shall please

Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.

3. To prefer; to have satisfaction in; to like; to choose.

Many of our most skilful painters were pleased or recommend this author to me.

To be pleased in or with, to approve; to have complacency in. Matthew 3:17.

To please God, is to love his character and law and perform his will, so as to become the object of his approbation.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:8.

PLEASE, verb intransitive s as z. To like; to choose; to prefer.

Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease

Assume what sexes and what shapes they please

1. To condescend; to comply; to be pleased; a word of ceremony.

PLEASE you, lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet.

The first words that I learnt were, to express my desire that he would please to give me my liberty.

PLEASE expresses less gratification than delight.

Pleased

PLE'ASED, participle passive Gratified; affected with agreeable sensations or emotions.

Pleaseman

PLE'ASEMAN, noun An officious person who courts favor servilely; a pickthank.

Pleaser

PLE'ASER, noun One that pleases or gratifies; one that courts favor by humoring or flattering compliances or a show of obedience; as men-pleasers. Ephesians 6:1. Colossians 3:1.

Pleasing

PLE'ASING, participle present tense Gratifying; exciting agreeable sensations or emotions in.

PLE'ASING, adjective Giving pleasure or satisfaction; agreeable to the senses or to the mind; as a pleasing prospect; a pleasing reflection; pleasing manners.

1. Gaining approbation. 1 John 3:1.

PLE'ASING, noun The act of gratifying.

Pleasingly

PLE'ASINGLY, adverb In such a manner as to give pleasure.

Pleasingness

PLE'ASINGNESS, noun The quality of giving pleasure.

Pleasurable

PLEASURABLE, adjective plezh'urable. [from pleasure.] Pleasing; giving pleasure; affording gratification.

Planting of orchards is very profitable as well as pleasurable

Pleasurableness

PLEAS'URABLENESS, noun The quality of giving pleasure.

Pleasurably

PLEAS'URABLY, adverb With pleasure; with gratification of the senses or the mind.

Pleasure

PLEASURE, noun plezh'ur.

1. The gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish or happiness produced by enjoyment or the expectation of good; opposed to pain. We receive pleasure from the indulgence of appetite; from the view of a beautiful landscape; from the harmony of sounds; from agreeable society; from the expectation of seeing an absent friend; from the prospect of gain or success of any kind. pleasure bodily and mental, carnal and spiritual, constitutes the whole of positive happiness, as pain constitutes the whole of misery.

PLEASURE is properly positive excitement of the passions or the mind; but we give the name also to the absence of excitement, when that excitement is painful; as when we cease to labor, or repose after fatigue, or when the mind is tranquilized after anxiety or agitation.

PLEASURE is susceptible of increase to any degree; but the word when unqualified, expresses less excitement or happiness than delight or joy.

2. Sensual or sexual gratification.

3. Approbation.

The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. Psalms 147:10.

and 149.

4. What the will dictates or prefers; will; choice; purpose; intention; command; as, use your pleasure

Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure Isaiah 44:28.

My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure

Isa 46.

5. A favor; that which pleases.

Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure answered Paul. Acts 25:9.

6. Arbitrary will or choice. He can vary his scheme at pleasure

PLEAS'URE, verb transitive plezh'ur. To give or afford pleasure to; to please; to gratify. [A word authorized by some good writers, but superfluous and not much used.]

Pleasure-Boat

PLEAS'URE-BOAT, noun A boat appropriated to sailing for amusement.

Pleasure-Carriage

PLEAS'URE-CARRIAGE, noun A carriage for pleasure.

Pleasure-Ground

PLEAS'URE-GROUND, noun Ground laid out in an ornamental manner and appropriated to pleasure or amusement.

Pleasureful

PLEAS'UREFUL, adjective Pleasant; agreeable. [Little used.]

Pleasurist

PLEAS'URIST, noun A person devoted to worldly pleasure. [Little used.]

Plebeian

PLEBE'IAN, adjective [Latin plebeius, from plebs, the common people.]

1. Pertaining to the common people; vulgar; as plebeian minds; plebeian sports.

2. Consisting of common people; as a plebeian throng.

PLEBE'IAN, noun One of the common people or lower ranks of men. [Usually applied to the common people of ancient Rome.]

Plebeiance

PLEBE'IANCE, noun The common people. [Not in use.]

Pledge

PLEDGE, noun [Latin plico.]

1. Something put in pawn; that which is deposited with another as security for the repayment of money borrowed, or for the performance of some agreement or obligation; a pawn. A borrows ten pounds of B, and deposits his watch as a pledge that the money shall be repaid; and by repayment of the money, A redeems the pledge

2. Any thing given or considered as a security for the performance of an act. Thus a man gives a word or makes a promise to another, which is received as a pledge for fulfillment. The mutual affection of husband and wife is a pledge for the faithful performance of the marriage covenant. Mutual interest is the best pledge for the performance of treaties.

3. A surety; a hostage.

4. In law, a gage or security real or personal, given for the repayment of money. It is of two kinds; vadium vivum, a living pledge as when a man borrows money and grants an estate to be held by the pledgee, till the rents and profits shall refund the money, in which case the land or pledge is said to be living; or it is vadium mortuum, a dead pledge called a mortgage. [See Mortgage.]

5. In law, bail; surety given for the prosecution of a suit, or for the appearance of a defendant, or for restoring goods taken in distress and replevied. The distress itself is also called a pledge and the glove formerly thrown down by a champion in trial by battel, was a pledge by which the champion stipulated to encounter his antagonist in that trial.

6. A warrant to secure a person from injury in drinking.

To put in pledge to pawn.

To hold in pledge to keep as security.

PLEDGE, verb transitive

1. To deposit in pawn; to deposit or leave in possession of a person something which is to secure the repayment of money borrowed, or the performance of some act. [This word is applied chiefly to the depositing of goods or personal property. When real estate is given as security we usually apply the word mortgage.]

2. To give as a warrant or security; as, to pledge one's word or honor; to pledge one's veracity.

3. To secure by a pledge

I accept her,

And here to pledge my vow I give my hand. [Unusual.]

4. To invite to drink by accepting the cup or health after another. Or to warrant or be surety for a person that he shall receive no harm while drinking, or from the draught; a practice which originated among our ancestors in their rude state, and which was intended to secure the person from being stabbed while drinking, or from being poisoned by the liquor. In the first case, a by-stander pledges the person drinking; in the latter, the person drinking pledges his guest by drinking first, and then handing the cup to his guest. The latter practice is frequent among the common people in America to this day; the owner of the liquor taking the cup says to his friend, I pledge you, and drinks, then hands the cup to his guest; a remarkable instance of the power of habit, as the reason of the custom has long since ceased.

Pledged

PLEDG'ED, participle passive Deposited as security; given in warrant.

Pledgee

PLEDGEE', noun The person to whom any thing is pledged.

Pledger

PLEDG'ER, noun One that pledges or pawns any thing; one that warrants or secures. [Pledgor, in Blackstone, is not to be countenanced.]

1. One that accepts the invitation to drink after another, or that secures another by drinking.

Pledgery

PLEDG'ERY, noun A pledging; suretyship. [Not in use.]

Pledget

PLEDG'ET, noun [from folding or laying.] In surgery, a compress or small flat tent of lint, laid over a wound to imbibe the matter discharged and keep it clean.