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plants

 [plant, plahnt]   Origin

plant

   [plant, plahnt]
noun
1.
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, especially 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.
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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.
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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.
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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, especially 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.
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Plants is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
Origin:
before 900; (noun) Middle English plaunte; in part continuing Old English plante sapling, young plant (< Latin planta); in part (< Old French plante) < Latin planta a shoot, sprig, scion (for planting), plant; (v.) Middle English plaunten; in part continuing Old English plantian (< Latin plantāre); in part (< Old French planter) < Latin plantāre to plant

Related forms
plant·a·ble, adjective
plant·less, adjective
plant·like, adjective
mis·plant, verb (used with object)
o·ver·plant, verb (used with object)
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pre·plant, verb (used with object)
self-plant·ed, adjective
sub·plant, noun
un·der·plant, verb (used with object)
un·plant·a·ble, adjective
un·plant·ed, adjective
well-plant·ed, adjective
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To plants
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

plant
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.)).
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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).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

plant definition


  1. tv.
    to strike a blow (to a particular place on someone). : The boxer planted a good blow on his opponent's shoulder.
  2. n.
    a spy who secretly participates in criminal activities in order to inform on the criminals. : Don't tell everything you know. You don't know who's a plant and who isn't.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

plants definition


["The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants", Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, Aristid Lindenmayer. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990. 3-54097297-8].

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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