plant definition | Dictionary.com

plant

[plant, plahnt]

–noun

any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts: some classification schemes may include fungi, algae, bacteria, blue-green algae, and certain single-celled eukaryotes that have plantlike qualities, as rigid cell walls or photosynthesis.

2.	an herb or other small vegetable growth, in contrast with a tree or a shrub.

3.	a seedling or a growing slip, esp. one ready for transplanting.

4.	the equipment, including the fixtures, machinery, tools, etc., and often the buildings, necessary to carry on any industrial business: a manufacturing plant.

5.	the complete equipment or apparatus for a particular mechanical process or operation: the heating plant for a home.

6.	the buildings, equipment, etc., of an institution: the sprawling plant of the university.

7.	Slang. something intended to trap, decoy, or lure, as criminals.

8.	Slang. a scheme to trap, trick, swindle, or defraud.

9.	a person, placed in an audience, whose rehearsed or prepared reactions, comments, etc., appear spontaneous to the rest of the audience.

10.	a person placed secretly in a group or organization, as by a foreign government, to obtain internal or secret information, stir up discontent, etc.

11.	Theater. a line of dialogue, or a character, action, etc., introducing an idea or theme that will be further developed at a later point in the play: Afterward we remembered the suicide plant in the second act.

–verb (used with object)

12.	to put or set in the ground for growth, as seeds, young trees, etc.

13.	to furnish or stock (land) with plants: to plant a section with corn.

14.	to establish or implant (ideas, principles, doctrines, etc.): to plant a love for learning in growing children.

15.	to introduce (a breed of animals) into a country.

16.	to deposit (young fish, or spawn) in a river, lake, etc.

17.	to bed (oysters).

18.	to insert or set firmly in or on the ground or some other body or surface: to plant posts along a road.

19.	Theater. to insert or place (an idea, person, or thing) in a play.

20.	to place; put.

21.	to place with great force, firmness, or determination: He planted himself in the doorway as if daring us to try to enter. He planted a big kiss on his son's cheek.

22.	to station; post: to plant a police officer on every corner.

23.	to locate; situate: Branch stores are planted all over.

24.	to establish (a colony, city, etc.); found.

25.	to settle (persons), as in a colony.

26.	to say or place (something) in order to obtain a desired result, esp. one that will seem spontaneous: The police planted the story in the newspaper in order to trap the thief.

27.	Carpentry. to nail, glue, or otherwise attach (a molding or the like) to a surface.

28.	to place (a person) secretly in a group to function as a spy or to promote discord.

29.	Slang. to hide or conceal, as stolen goods.

Origin:
bef. 900; (n.) ME plaunte; in part continuing OE plante sapling, young plant (< L planta); in part (< OF plante) < L planta a shoot, sprig, scion (for planting), plant; (v.) ME plaunten; in part continuing OE plantian (< L plantāre); in part (< OF planter) < L plantāre to plant

Related forms:

plant⋅a⋅ble, adjective

plantless, adjective

plantlike, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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plant (plānt)

Botany
1. Any of various photosynthetic, eukaryotic, multicellular organisms of the kingdom Plantae characteristically producing embryos, containing chloroplasts, having cellulose cell walls, and lacking the power of locomotion.
2. A plant having no permanent woody stem; an herb.
3. A building or group of buildings for the manufacture of a product; a factory.
4. The equipment, including machinery, tools, instruments, and fixtures and the buildings containing them, necessary for an industrial or manufacturing operation.
5. A person placed in a group of spectators to influence behavior.
6. A person stationed in a given location as a spy or observer.
7. A misleading piece of evidence placed so as to be discovered.
8. A remark or action in a play or narrative that becomes important later.
1. A building or group of buildings for the manufacture of a product; a factory.
2. The equipment, including machinery, tools, instruments, and fixtures and the buildings containing them, necessary for an industrial or manufacturing operation.
3. A person placed in a group of spectators to influence behavior.
4. A person stationed in a given location as a spy or observer.
5. A misleading piece of evidence placed so as to be discovered.
6. A remark or action in a play or narrative that becomes important later.
The buildings, equipment, and fixtures of an institution: the entire plant of a university.
A person or thing put into place in order to mislead or function secretly, especially:
1. A person placed in a group of spectators to influence behavior.
2. A person stationed in a given location as a spy or observer.
3. A misleading piece of evidence placed so as to be discovered.
4. A remark or action in a play or narrative that becomes important later.
Slang A scheming trick; a swindle.

tr.v. plant·ed, plant·ing, plants

1. To place or set (seeds, for example) in the ground to grow.
2. To place seeds or young plants in (land); sow: plant a field in corn.
3. To place (spawn or young fish) in water or an underwater bed for cultivation: plant oysters.
4. To stock with spawn or fish.
5. To station (a person) for the purpose of functioning in secret, as by observing, spying, or influencing behavior: Detectives were planted all over the store.
6. To place secretly or deceptively so as to be discovered or made public: planted a gun on the corpse to make the death look like suicide.
1. To place (spawn or young fish) in water or an underwater bed for cultivation: plant oysters.
2. To stock with spawn or fish.
3. To station (a person) for the purpose of functioning in secret, as by observing, spying, or influencing behavior: Detectives were planted all over the store.
4. To place secretly or deceptively so as to be discovered or made public: planted a gun on the corpse to make the death look like suicide.
To introduce (an animal) into an area.
To set firmly in position; fix: planted both feet on the ground.
To establish; found: plant a colony.
To fix firmly in the mind; implant: "The right of revolution is planted in the heart of man" (Clarence Darrow).
1. To station (a person) for the purpose of functioning in secret, as by observing, spying, or influencing behavior: Detectives were planted all over the store.
2. To place secretly or deceptively so as to be discovered or made public: planted a gun on the corpse to make the death look like suicide.
To conceal; hide: planted the stolen goods in the warehouse.
Slang To deliver (a blow or punch).

[Middle English plante, from Old English and Old French, both from Latin planta, sprout, seedling; see plat- in Indo-European roots.]
plant'a·ble adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Plant

Plant\, n. [AS. plante, L. planta.]

1. A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary motion, and having, when complete, a root, stem, and leaves, though consisting sometimes only of a single leafy expansion, or a series of cellules, or even a single cellule.

Note: Plants are divided by their structure and methods of reproduction into two series, ph[ae]nogamous or flowering plants, which have true flowers and seeds, and cryptogamous or flowerless plants, which have no flowers, and reproduce by minute one-celled spores. In both series are minute and simple forms and others of great size and complexity. As to their mode of nutrition, plants may be considered as self-supporting and dependent. Self-supporting plants always contain chlorophyll, and subsist on air and moisture and the matter dissolved in moisture, and as a general rule they excrete oxygen, and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and form the material for their tissues. Dependent plants comprise all fungi and many flowering plants of a parasitic or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they have no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter already organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds already existing, and not excreting oxygen. But there are plants which are partly dependent and partly self-supporting. The movements of climbing plants, of some insectivorous plants, of leaves, stamens, or pistils in certain plants, and the ciliary motion of zo["o]spores, etc., may be considered a kind of voluntary motion.

2. A bush, or young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff. "A plant of stubborn oak." --Dryden.

3. The sole of the foot. [R.] "Knotty legs and plants of clay." --B. Jonson.

4. (Com.) The whole machinery and apparatus employed in carrying on a trade or mechanical business; also, sometimes including real estate, and whatever represents investment of capital in the means of carrying on a business, but not including material worked upon or finished products; as, the plant of a foundry, a mill, or a railroad.

5. A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick. [Slang]

It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey. --Dickens.

6. (Zo["o]l.) (a) An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth. (b) A young oyster suitable for transplanting. [Local, U.S.]

Plant bug (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous hemipterous insects which injure the foliage of plants, as Lygus lineolaris, which damages wheat and trees.

Plant cutter (Zo["o]l.), a South American passerine bird of the genus Phytotoma, family Phytotomid[ae]. It has a serrated bill with which it cuts off the young shoots and buds of plants, often doing much injury.

Plant louse (Zo["o]l.), any small hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the families Aphid[ae] and Psyllid[ae]; an aphid.

Plant

Plant\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Planted; p. pr. & vb. n. Planting.] [AS. plantian, L. plantare. See Plant, n.]

1. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maize.

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

Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees. --Deut. xvi. 21.

3. To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest.

4. To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.

It engenders choler, planteth anger. --Shak.

5. To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish; as, to plant a colony.

Planting of countries like planting of woods. --Bacon.

6. To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen.

7. To set firmly; to fix; to set and direct, or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a standard in any place; to plant one's feet on solid ground; to plant one's fist in another's face.

8. To set up; to install; to instate.

We will plant some other in the throne. --Shak.

Plant

Plant\, v. i. To perform the act of planting.

I have planted; Apollos watered. --1 Cor. iii. 6.

Language Translation for : plant

Spanish: planta,

German: die Pflanze,

Japanese: 植物

More Translations »

plant (n.)

O.E. plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted," from L. planta "sprout, shoot, cutting," perhaps from *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push into the ground with the feet," from planta "sole of the foot," from nasalized form of PIE *plat- "flat" (see place (n.)). Ger. Pflanze, Ir. cland, Welsh plant are from Latin. Broader sense of "any vegetable life" is first recorded 1551. The verb, "put in the ground to grow," is O.E. plantian, from L. plantare, from planta. Most extended usages are from the verbal sense. Sense of a building "planted" or begun for an industrial process is first attested 1789. Slang meaning "a spy" is first recorded 1812. Planter "proprietor of a cultivated estate in W.Indies or southern colonies of N.America" is attested from 1647; hence planter's punch (1924).

plant (plānt) Pronunciation Key
Any of a wide variety of multicellular eukaryotic organisms, belonging to the kingdom Plantae and including the bryophytes and vascular plants. Plant cells have cell walls made of cellulose. Except for a few specialized symbionts, plants have chlorophyll and manufacture their own food through photosynthesis. Most plants grow in a fixed location and reproduce sexually, showing an alternation of generations between a diploid stage (with each cell having two sets of chromosomes) and haploid stage (with each cell having one set of chromosomes) in their life cycle. The first fossil plants date from the Silurian period. Formerly the algae, slime molds, dinoflagellates, and fungi, among other groups, were classified as plants, but now these are considered to belong to other kingdoms. See Table at taxonomy.

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