| 释义 |
▪ I. plant, n.1|plɑːnt, -æ-|
Forms: 1 plante, 4–7 plante, (4–5 plonte, 5 plantte, plaunte, plounte, Sc. playnt, 6 plaunt), 5– plant.
[In sense 1, OE. plante fem., ad. L. planta sprout, slip, cutting, graft, whence also OHG. pflanza, ON. planta. Later senses are affected by med. or mod. uses of L. planta, and by F. plante, or are direct derivatives of plant v., or a. F. plant action of planting, plants collectively for planting out, f. planter to plant.]
I.
1. a. A young tree, shrub, or herb newly planted, or intended for planting; a set, cutting, slip; a sapling. Obs. or dial. (In local use the name for seedling vegetables at this stage, as ‘healthy cabbage plants’, ‘plants at sixpence a hundred’, etc.)
c825Vesp. Psalter cxliii. 12 Ðeara bearn swe swe niowe plant[e] steaðelunge ᵹesteaðulfestad from ᵹuᵹuðe. c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xlix. §2. 381 On æppeltunum, ðonne hie wel begað hira plantan and hiera impan, oð hie fulweaxne beoð. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 104 Þe fyrre in þe fryth þe fei[r]er con ryse Þe playn, þe plonttez, þe spyse, þe perez. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 763 Yif me a plante of thilke blissed tree; And in my gardyn planted it shal bee. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 26 Men take plantes or slyfynges þeroff and sett þam in oþer placez. c1440Alphabet of Tales 1, & þou sett in my garthyn a yong plante of a tre. 1526Tindale Matt. xv. 13 All plantes [Gr. πᾶσα ϕυτεία, Vulg. omnis plantatio] which my hevenly father hath nott planted shalbe plucked vppe by the rotes. 1535Coverdale Ps. xlvii. 2 The hill of Sion is like a fayre plante [Luther ‘Der Berg Zion ist wie ein schön Zweiglein’]. 1573–80Baret Alv. P 467 A plant, the slip of a tree that was planted in the earth. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 378 There is a man haunts the Forrest, that abuses our yong plants with caruing Rosalinde on their barkes. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 86/2 Plants are young Trees fit to be set. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. ix. 196 Some plants of canes.
b. A young tree or sapling used as a pole, staff, or cudgel. Now chiefly dial.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 50 Þanne liberum arbitrium laccheth þe thridde plante. c1450Merlin 493 He caught a plante of an appell tre..and toke the barre in bothe handes, and seide he wolde make hem to remeve. c1600Day Begg. Bednall Gr. v. (1881) 109 An ashen plant, a good Cudgell, what sho'd I call it? 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 638 Take, Shepherd, take a plant of stubborn oak And labour him with many a sturdy stroke. 1712Addison Spect. No. 335 ⁋2 Sir Roger's Servants..had..provided themselves with good Oaken Plants, to attend their Master upon this occasion. 1732Eliza Heywood Belle Assemblée II. 121 This magnanimous Spaniard..having under his Habit, a good Sword, and a strong Oaken-Plant. 1900McIlroy Craiglinnie v. 54 (Ulster) The country people came pouring in—each man carrying his ash ‘plant’.
c. fig. Anything planted or springing up; a scion, offshoot, nurseling; a young person; a novice. Now rare.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 137 Loue is þe leuest þing þat vr lord askeþ, And eke þe playnt [v. rr. plante, plaunte, plonte] of pees. 1435Misyn Fire of Love 5 Fyer of fraward lufe, þe whilk wastis burionyng of verteu, & norrysches þe plantes of all vyce. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxxvii. 30 Gret Gode ws graunt that we have long desirit, A plaunt to spring of thi successioun. 1648Gage West Ind. 175 The Inquisition..considering them to be but new plants useth not such rigour with them. 1706Phillips, Plant, figuratively a young Man or Maid. 1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 188 A plant from Bristol, a youth of tremendous power.
2. a. A member of the lower of the two series of organized living beings, i.e. of the vegetable kingdom; a vegetable; generally distinguished from an animal by the absence of locomotion and of special organs of sensation and digestion, and by the power of feeding wholly upon inorganic substances. (= mod.L. planta in botanical use.) Often popularly restricted to the smaller, esp. herbaceous plants, to the exclusion of trees and shrubs.
1551Turner Herbal i. A ij, Y⊇ Knowlege of plantes, herbes, and trees. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 26 b, Plants be sorted and deuided into three parts: the first is the Herbe: the seconde the Shrub: the third the Tree. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Plant, a Natural Body that has a vegetable Soul. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., The Learned and Experienced Botanist, Mr. John Ray, gives us the following Characteristick Notes of the Chief Kinds of Plants. 1748Gray Alliance 1 Sickly Plants betray a niggard Earth. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 180 Betula. Flowers male and female on the same plant. 1830J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 36 The original dimensions of this venerable plant. 1884J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 81 Plants, because it is their nature to produce leaves, may, by an over⁓plus of food, produce nothing else.
b. fig.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iv. 395 The Parents liue, whose Children thou hast butcher'd, Old barren Plants, to waile it with their Age. 1844Emerson Lect., Yng. Amer. Wks. (Bohn) II. 300 Government has been a fossil; it should be a plant. 1869Lecky Europ. Mor. II. i. 41 Christianity alone was powerful enough to tear this evil plant from the Roman soil.
c. Sometimes applied to the leafy or herbaceous part of a vegetable.
1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 144 Leeks..Replanted in the Month of May, very deep in the Earth, to make their Stalks and Plants thick and white.
II. Chiefly from plant v.
3. a. collect. A growth of something planted or sown; a crop.
1832Veg. Subst. Food 199 To insure a good crop of barley and a kind plant of clover. 1846Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VII. ii. 288 The promising plant of wheat which covered it was laid..by the rough weather. 1898Rider Haggard in Longm. Mag. Oct. 513 There was a very full plant of swedes, which would have produced a fine crop.
b. abstr. Growth. in plant, growing, in leaf; to lose plant, to die off, dwindle away; to fail in plant or miss plant, to fail to spring from seed.
1844Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. V. i. 4 Clover..if sown oftener it is apt to fail in plant; and even when in plant it is not very productive unless highly manured. 1847Ibid. VIII. ii. 291 The spaces in the..turnips, which have missed plant, are filled up with transplanted swedes. 1852Ibid. XIII. i. 58 The wheat often loses plant in the spring.
c. = plant-cane s.v. plant n.1 11 e.
1866‘Mark Twain’ Lett. fr. Hawaii (1967) xix. 209 Almost everywhere on the island of Hawaii sugarcane matures in twelve months, both ratoons and plant. Ibid. xxiii. 258 This year the ‘plant’ crop on the Wailuku plantation averages 8,000 [pounds per acre].
4. The way in which any one plants himself or is planted; footing, foothold, pose.
1817Sporting Mag. L. 2 The wide area between his feet, when in a standing position, gave him so firm a ‘plant’, if I may so say. 1889Macm. Mag. Mar. 277/1 There was doggedness and obstinacy in the plant of the figures.
5. A deposit of fish-spawn, fry, or oysters; ellipt. an oyster which has been bedded or is intended for bedding, as distinguished from a native. U.S.
6. a. The fixtures, implements, machinery, and apparatus used in carrying on any industrial process; the premises and fixtures of a business or (chiefly U.S.) of an institution; a place where an industrial process is carried on; also, a single machine or large piece of apparatus. Also transf., the workers employed at a plant.
1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 133 The ground was destined to the purposes of extensive commerce, but the appellation of a plant gave me much disturbance, from my inability to fathom the meaning. 1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 239/2 There was very little possibility of transferring these implements (technically called the Plant) from one contract to another. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coalmining 110 In Durham and Northumberland a single ‘plant’ of pits and engines will work the ground for a mile or two on each side. 1882Engineer 24 Feb. 133/2 The plant includes one steam crane, three steam travelling cranes, a steam fire-engine, a steam pump, two steam hammers, seven steam engines, three boilers, and a few hundred nail-making machines. 1894Westm. Gaz. 30 Apr. 5/1 Six plants in the coke region of Pennsylvania are now in operation. 1904W. T. Mills Struggle for Existence iii. xvii. 216 The great steel plants maintain great laboratories. 1922Managem. Engin. Feb., 86/2 No more time is lost by having all the plant out on strike for a week than in having a tenth of the force absent for 10 weeks. 1925Scribner's Mag. July 31/2 (Advt.), Irving School for boys... Modern plant, complete equipment. 1927Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Sept. 374/1 To those American investigators a school meant buildings, equipment, and machinery, or ‘plant’ as they themselves would say. 1930J. Buchan Castle Gay xii. 194 He made his way round to the back regions, which had once been stables and coach-houses, and housed now the electric plant and a repairing shop for cars. 1939D. L. Sayers In Teeth of Evidence 9 They all want to..play with the apparatus. One of them got loose last time and tried to electrocute itself on the X-ray plant. 1949Sat. Rev. Lit. 21 May 4/3 Its guiding genius..has seen this school grow from an abstract idea to a two-million-dollar plant. 1957J. H. Arnison Pract. Road Constr. iii. 52 The shafts for the manholes may be cut out by manual labour, and the main trench by mechanical plant. 1958Engineering 14 Mar. 322/2 Most of the plants benefiting from this influx of dollars are in the Glasgow area. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Oct. 569/2 The new church ‘plant’..is one of the most impressive and novel signs of the boom atmosphere. Mormons, Catholics, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, all flourish, to judge by the ecclesiastical building boom. 1960Washington Post 16 Nov. a 16 The institution has almost never received adequate funds, is understaffed, has an inadequate and deteriorating physical plant and is ‘on its way to becoming a second rate municipal zoo’. 1963Times Rev. Industry Mar. 51/2 Mr. Justice Pennycuick..said that ‘plant’, in its ordinary sense, ‘includes whatever apparatus is used by a businessman for carrying on his business’. 1971B. Scharf Engin. & its Language xvii. 245 Examples of mobile earthmoving plant are bulldozers, graders and scrapers. 1972J. Mosedale Football xi. 150 Workers at the meat packing plants. 1973Times 16 Nov. 20/8 At plant level, the [German] philosophy is the shared responsibility of capital and labour for the growth of the enterprise. 1977Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXV. 300/2 With the reduction of teacher training the amount of surplus ‘plant’ becoming available would eliminate capital construction costs.
b. fig. The instrumentalities employed in carrying on spiritual or intellectual work.
1861Ld. Lindsay Scepticism 341 We must take stock here, likewise, of our spiritual plant, our intellectual capital. 1881Nation (N.Y.) XXXII. 437 The college is to him a sort of industrial enterprise,..and the professors are part of the plant. 1887Ch. Times 21 Jan. 54/3 The policy of increasing the plant of the Roman Catholic body here..is still pursued.
c. Austral. The equipment, stock, vehicles, etc., of a drover, a farm, a road-mending team, etc.
1901H. Lawson Prose Wks. (1948) 427 Andy had charge of the ‘droving-plant’ (a tilted two-horse wagonette, in which we carried the rations and horse-feed). 1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life 7 Soon we became aware of two teams coming to meet us... Victorian poverty spoke in every detail of the working plant. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xvii. 290 Charlotte was to have her cows and poultry, so that when the diggings were played out there would be a grazier's plant to fall back upon. 1934Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 32/2 Although he knew our standard of horsemanship so well, he is so ignorant of our calling as to refer to my plant as my ‘herd’. 1954B. Miles Stars my Blanket xxiv. 211 He..was then about to return to Elsey with his ‘plant’—a drover's ‘plant’ being his spare horses and packs. 1963A. Lubbock Austral. Roundabout 42 ‘That'll be Dan Daley with his droving plant,’ said Barney, shading his eyes. ‘Plant?’ I queried. ‘Outfit—we call it ‘plant’ here.’
7. a. [f. plant v. 8.] A hoard of stolen goods; also the place where they are hidden. Also, a hiding-place for people or goods; the people or goods so hidden; spec. (a hiding-place for) drugs or equipment used by a drug-addict. slang.
1785Sessions Papers of Central Criminal Court Apr. 582/1 He opened a place in the wainscot, which is called ‘a plant’, it was a secret cupboard. 1796Grose's Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3), Plant, the place in the house of the fence, where stolen goods are secreted. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., Any thing hid is called, the plant,..such article is said to be in plant; the place of concealment is sometimes called the plant, as ‘I know of a fine plant’; that is a secure hiding-place. To spring a plant, is to find any thing that has been concealed by another. To rise the plant, is to take up and remove any thing that has been hid, whether by yourself or another. 1829H. Widowson Present State of Van Diemen's Land xi. 118 The slabs were very loose; on pulling them up, the plant was sprung and mutton in abundance was discovered stowed away in a large barrel. 1837J. D. Lang New S. Wales II. 52 He had found, to his astonishment and disappointment, that some person had sprung the plant—a cant phrase for discovering and carrying off property which another person has stolen and concealed. 1846[see dunny n.2 1]. 1874Hotten Slang Dict. 256 Plant, a hidden store of money or valuables. To ‘spring a plant’ is to unearth another person's hoard. 1926J. Black You can't Win xii. 160 The sack contained his ‘plant’, an eye dropper with a hypodermic needle soldered to it, and a small paper of morphine. Ibid. xx. 314, I could lift the plant and be far away before daylight. 1967S. Lloyd Lightning Ridge Bk. iii. 8 Gibson never located this plant of opal again.
b. A person who, or thing which, has been ‘planted’ (see plant v. 2 c). slang.
1926Amer. Speech I. 436/2 Plant, a member of an act planted in the audience or the orchestra pit who performs his share of the act from there, or who comes upon the stage from the audience to take part in the performance as a supposed non-member of the profession. 1949Newsweek 3 Oct. 36/3 Fifteen government witnesses, a half-dozen of them FBI ‘plants’ who infiltrated the Communist Party, had taken the stand. 1952Koestler Arrow in Blue iv. xxiii. 191 One of her favourite pastimes was to fabricate apocryphal news items... One of the most successful of her plants ran something as follows. 1969TV Times (Austral.) 15 Oct. 10/3 One Press agent made an interesting slip of the tongue when he commented: ‘The first thing any publicist does in the morning is to read the plants, I mean the trades.’ 1978G. Vaughan Belgrade Drop ii. 15 ‘Heroin!’ the detective shouted... Yardley had never seen the package before... He said: ‘That stuff's a plant.’ 1978M. Walker Infiltrator iv. 48 If she was a plant... I would have to take her along,..and find out who had planted her and why.
8. A scheme or plot laid to swindle or defraud a person; an elaborately planned burglary or other form of theft or robbery. (The notion appears to be that of a trap or snare carefully planted or laid in the ground and covered up.) Sharpers' slang.
1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 241 A regular plant to clear me out. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Greenwich Fair, The ‘plant’ is successful, the bet is made, the stranger of course loses. 1837― Pickw. xlviii, ‘It's a conspiracy’, said Ben Allen. ‘A regular plant’, added Mr. Bob Sawyer. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxliii. 124 When the classes who live by warfare with society, lay a deliberate scheme by which an honest man's house is to be entered, or his property carried off, it takes at the Police Offices the title of a ‘plant’. 1884Pall Mall G. 20 Feb. 4 He..charges..Blackburn with having, in language, which has recently become parliamentary, ‘put up a plant’ on his innocent young friend.
9. [f. plant v. 2 c.] A spy, a detective; a picket of detectives. slang.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 210 He sold forged notes to a plant [note A person sent for the purpose of detecting him] which led to his untimely end. 1880Daily Tel. 26 Nov., At Shepperton Lock the keeper..cautioned the defendant as he was going through the lock to take care, as there was a ‘plant’ out that night. Mod. A plant set to detect motorists travelling at illegal speed.
10. Billiards, Snooker, etc. In a situation where two balls (usu. reds) are touching: a shot whereby the cue-ball strikes one of them so as to pot the other; the result of this shot.
1884W. Cook Billiards xxiv. 132 There are circumstances under which..the smash becomes..the undoubted game, and this is when there is a ‘plant’ on. 1896W. Broadfoot et al. Billiards iii. 106 The plant is still possible when the line through the centres falls slightly to the right or left of the pocket. 1937H. Lindrum Billiards & Snooker 103 B is called a ‘dead plant’. The two reds are touching and in a line with middle of pocket. 1954Billiards & Snooker (‘Know the Game’ Ser.) 32/2 Set or Plant. The two terms have become practically synonymous... They apply to a position in which two balls (invariably reds) are touching one another. In such a position it is possible to pot one or other of the balls by contacting..the ball nearer the pocket, or..the further one... Correct contact on the ball further from the pocket gives the necessary direction to the one nearer the pocket. 1985Guardian 29 Apr. 27/5 Taylor..preferring a speculative plant to the middle pocket to an open red playing onto a low value colour for safety.
III. attrib. and Comb.
11. a. Simple attrib., as plant-centre, plant-covering, plant-disease, plant-egg, plant-ferment, plant-fetish, plant-form, plant-growth, plant hire, plant-kingdom, plant-life, plant-movement, plant-name, plant-ornament, plant pot, plant-remains, plant-species, plant-spirit, plant-stand, plant-wealth, plant-world. b. Appositive, as plant-ancestor. c. Objective and obj. gen., as plant-dispersal, plant-dropper, plant-eater, plant-eating, plant-forcer, plant-growing, plant-hirer, plant-hunting, plant-naming, plant-worship, plant-worshipper; plant-bearing, plant-feeding, plant-stimulating, plant-sucking adjs.d. Instrumental, as plant-clothed, plant-grown adjs.
1876H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. i. xxiii. §181 Now if an animal regarded as original progenitor, is therefore reverentially treated; so..may we expect the *plant-ancestor will be.
1894Geol. Mag. Oct. 473 The Carboniferous *plant-bearing strata of Roberts' valley.
1894Board Agric. Circular x. 4 These traps..should be placed close to the [hop] hills or *plant-centres.
1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 250 Fruits eaten by birds afford a means of *plant-dispersal.
1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. xiv. §110 Among animals the flesh-eaters cannot exist without the *plant-eaters.
1905V. L. Kellogg Amer. Insects xii. 252 (*Plant⁓eating beetles.) Tribe Phytophaga. 1941J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man vi. 157 The best-analysed cases concern..plant-eating insects adapted to different food plants. 1973W. S. Romoser Science of Entomology vii. 186 Phytophagous means literally ‘plant eating’.
1684T. Burnet Th. Earth i. 197 This is not necessary in *plant-eggs or vegetable seeds.
1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 23 Oct. an. 1775, The manure is..equally incorporated with the *plant-feeding stratum.
1899Daily News 22 Feb. 6/3 The belief in *plant-fetishes, wherein the informing spirit or ghost occupies the place of natural property.
1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs's Bot. 130 In the same manner, from a morphological point of view, stems, leaves, hairs, roots, thallus-branches, are simply members of the *plant-form.
1902Daily Chron. 29 Apr. 3/3 The wild *plant-grown embankments of railway cuttings.
Ibid. 10 July 3/4 Means..for restraining injurious *plant-growth or for disposing of an insect pest.
1976‘L. Black’ Healthy Way to Die xi. 118 There were thirty-five companies ranging from a merchant bank to..a *plant-hire outfit. 1978J. Sherwood Limericks of Lachasse xi. 133 Get on to that plant hire place..and get them to have an excavator up here..to dig up the car park.
1973Times 11 May 19/5 *Plant hirers are able to offer such machines.
1878Hooker & Ball Marocco 346 Ball enjoyed a capital day's *plant-hunting at Tangier.
1884R. Folkard Plant Lore (title-p.) Folk-Lore of the *Plant-Kingdom.
1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. viii. §70 *Plant-life is all directly or indirectly dependant on the heat and light of the sun. 1894Persian Pict. 183 A luxuriant plant-life covered every stem and log.
1594La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 134 A name [Zoophyta], which in our language signifieth as much as *plant-liuing creatures.
1878Britten & Holland (title) A Dictionary of English *Plant-names.
1898M. A. Buckmaster Elem. Archit. 26 The acanthus..was the favourite *plant-ornament with the Greeks and Romans.
1963Times 21 Jan. 15/1 The Italian company..plans to make *plant pots for the horticultural trade. 1975D. Clark Premedicated Murder iv. 52 They both said yes together, like plant-pot men. 1977G. Scott Hot Pursuit vii. 68 The shelves were filled with files and papers and plant pots.
1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 195 Proofs of a mild Arctic climate, in the abundant *plant-remains of East Siberia and Amurland.
1876H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. i. xxiii. §182 No explanation of the conceived shape of the *plant-spirit.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 6070, Ornamental wire *plant-stands, model rosery, and verandah. 1903K. D. Wiggin Rebecca 247 She buried her face in the blooming geraniums on Miss Maxwell's plant-stand. 1974Trafford Catal. Spring/Summer 591/2 Pedestal plant stand..with six variable position pot holders.
1908Westm. Gaz. 30 May 7/3 There are very few who realise the enormous number of species that in reality make up this mischievous group of *plant-sucking parasites. 1969New Scientist 2 Oct. 19/1 The Australian plantsucking psyllid bug..lives on eucalyptus leaves.
1936E. Sitwell Sel. Poems 12 The ethereal quality of the *plant-world.
1876H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. i. xxiii. §183 *Plant-worship,..like the worship of idols and animals, is an aberrant species of ancestor-worship.
1883Century Mag. Sept. 720/2 The ornament which we have derived from Chaldean *plant-worshippers.
e. Special Combs.: plant-bed, (a) a stratum containing fossil plants; (b) U.S., a bed of earth prepared for the germination of seeds and the growth of young plants, esp. of tobacco seedlings; plant-beetle, a beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ, feeding on plants, a leaf-beetle; plant-breeder, one who cultivates plants with the object of improving existing varieties, or producing new ones; also plant-breeding vbl. n.; plant-cane, a sugar-cane of one year's growth; plant-cover(ing), vegetation spreading over the surface of the earth; plant-cutter, (a) a passerine bird of the S. American genus Phytotoma, having the habit of biting off the shoots of plants; (b) U.S. Hist., (pl.) rioters in early times in Virginia, who systematically cut down the tobacco plants; plant-feeder, any animal that feeds upon plants; plant-food, a substance, or the substances collectively, on which plants feed; the food of plants; plant geographer = phytogeographer; plant geography = phytogeography; plant hormone = hormone 2, phytohormone; plant-house, (a) a greenhouse or conservatory; (b) a building containing industrial plant; plant-marker, a small tablet of wood, zinc, terra-cotta, etc., set in the ground beside a plant, and bearing its name; plant-of-gluttony, rendering of Gael. lus-a-chraois, name for the dwarf cornel, Cornus suecica, the berries of which are reputed to stimulate the appetite (Treas. Bot. 1866 s.v. Cornus); plant pathology = phytopathology (a) s.v. phyto-; so plant pathologist; plant physiology, the scientific study of the normal functions and phenomena of plants; so plant physiologist; † plant-plot, a nursery for young plants; plant-tin, a tinned vessel for carrying plants, a botanical case or vasculum; plant-wax, wax obtained from plants.
1833Niles' Reg. XLIV. 411/1 He is clearing new grounds; preparing and burning *plant-beds. 1881Rep. Geol. Explor. N. Zealand 48 The Mataura series in the Hokanui Hills overlying the plant-beds. 1907St. Nicholas May 651/1 A ‘running’ board was put around the base and a plant bed about a foot wide made within this. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xlv. 20 We put cotton canvas over the plant bed.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 321 The beautiful tribe of *plant-beetles (Chrysomela, F.).
1906Chambers's Jrnl. 28 July 556/2 The experiments open up a new and interesting field for the *plant-breeder. 1929T. Thomson tr. Büsgen's Structure & Life of Forest Trees xiv. 403 The expert eye of the plant breeder is able to discover them [sc. individual differences between plants]. 1970R. Gorer Development of Garden Flowers i. 26 To the plant breeder, the importance and interest of germ cell formation lies in the first stage of meiosis.
1908Westm. Gaz. 28 Mar. 6/2 Few who are making a study of the fundamental principles of *plant-breeding are unfamiliar with the name and the results achieved by Luther Burbank. 1926J. S. Huxley Essays in Pop. Sci. ii. 10 There has sprung into being a new science, of animal- and plant-breeding. 1970R. Gorer Development of Garden Flowers i. 21 The essential basis of plant breeding is selection.
1790W. Beckford Descr. Account Island of Jamaica I. 161 It is a common practice, where corn will grow, to plant it with the canes... Among *plant-canes, I do not conceive it of consequence. 1793Edwards W. Indies II. v. i. 210 Plant-canes in this soil..have been known in very fine seasons to yield two tons and a half of sugar per acre. 1853Harper's Mag. Nov. 757 The ‘growing crop’ in Louisiana consists of three kinds of cane: the first is technically called ‘plant cane’ and is that which springs directly from the ‘seed cane’. 1949Caribbean Quarterly I. i. 5 A cane field was not ripe for its first harvest (the ‘plant cane’) until the second winter after its planting.
1943J. S. Huxley TVA 17 Forests and *plant cover were stripped. 1976Field 18 Nov. 976/3 Where the vegetation has been worn away, the shade of the plant cover lost.., evaporation from the bare surface proceeds apace.
1911W. G. Smith in A. G. Tansley Types Brit. Vegetation xiii. 312 The *plant covering is distinctly xerophilous in response to frequent dry periods. 1946Nature 2 Nov. 605/1 Nomadism..a mode of life, indeed, in which defacement of the plant-covering by ploughing or digging is the worst of economic offences.
1802Latham Gen. Synops. Birds Supp. II. 212 *Plant-cutter. 1894in Newton Dict. Birds 730.
1869Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. 1868 396 Such *plant-food as rain-water and the atmosphere supply. 1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 101 Virgin forest soil is considered best..because it contains sufficient plant-food. 1902Westm. Gaz. 17 June 12/2 There is no substance so rich in plant-food as the carcass of an animal. 1939Lawrence & Newell Seed & Potting Composts ii. 23 These chemical compounds absorbed by the plant..we shall refer to as ‘plant foods’. 1976J. Berrisford Backyards & Tiny Gardens viii. 59 Such a growing medium contains no plant foods, so fertilizers must be added before planting.
1913Jrnl. Ecology I. 27 This character [sc. the physiognomy of vegetation] is unjustly regarded as merely superficial..by many modern *plant⁓geographers. 1973P. A. Colinvaux Introd. Ecol. ii. 27 On the grand-scale, maps of climate based on the plant geographer's boundaries were useful.
1903W. R. Fisher tr. Schimper's Plant-Geogr. p. vi, The connexion between the forms of plants and the external conditions at different points on the earth's surface forms the subject⁓matter of oecological *plant-geography. 1934H. Gilbert-Carter tr. Raunkiaer's Life Forms of Plants iv. 111 The units of floristic plant geography are the same as those of systematic botany. 1977Sci. Amer. May 99/1 Specimens were collected and filed in herbaria for later investigation by new techniques ranging from cytology and physiology to plant geography and ecology.
1935Biol. Rev. X. 429 Other *plant hormones, such as the wound hormones of Haberlandt, we need not discuss, since less quantitative knowledge is available on the subject. They apparently also act by diffusion from cell to cell. 1951, etc. [see hormone 2]. 1959L. J. Audus Plant Growth Substances i. 18 Plant hormones are substances which regulate..some aspect of plant growth and which are produced by the organism itself. They may be growth hormones, flowering hormones, and so forth. 1974Physiologia Plantarum XXXII. 369 (heading) Effect of abscisic acid and other plant hormones on growth of apical and lateral buds of seedlings.
1863Horticulturist XVIII. 306 We again have the satisfaction of presenting two examples of *Plant Houses; one a Green-house, and the other a Cold Grapery. 1881Encycl. Brit. XII. 221/2 Plant houses must be as far as possible impervious to wet and cold air from the exterior. 1909Westm. Gaz. 6 May 5/3 A plant-house is being erected outside the south wall of the provincial capital.
1909B. M. Duggar Fungous Diseases of Plants 3 There was a bright prospect for controlling many of the fungous diseases of plants, and there developed..an immediate need for *plant pathologists. 1977Daily Tel. 6 July 2/1 Dr Alan Walker, Ministry Plant Pathologist, said that cereal diseases which could cut yield by up to 15 per cent. were minimal this year.
1895Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LXVIII. 11 (heading) Chemical investigations in *plant pathology. 1908P. T. Dondlinger Bk. of Wheat ix. 148 Studies in plant pathology of any great practical bearing or importance are..modern and recent. 1935Discovery Oct. 294/1 The intimate relationships between plant pathology..and other branches of botany. 1973Nature 27 Apr. 595/2 Plant pathology..is to plants what the whole of medicine and veterinary science is to man and animals. Ibid. 596/1 Is it right that any comprehensive book on the principles of plant pathology should dismiss viruses and mycoplasmata with thirty-six pages and an apology?
1931W. O. James Introd. Plant Physiol. i. 2 The methods used by *plant physiologists..are mainly derived from various branches of chemistry and physics.
1898S. A. Moor tr. W. Detmer's Pract. Plant Physiol. p. vii, *Plant physiology is now of..far-reaching significance for students of Natural Science, Agriculture, Forestry, and Medicine. 1937W. H. Saumarez Smith Let. 10 July in Young Man's Country (1977) ii. 80, I was interested to see the place where all his [sc. Tagore's] disciples are following out the lines of research suggested by his highly original work in plant-physiology. 1968F. C. Steward Growth & Organization in Plants p. iii, The author's, and indeed a customary, approach to plant physiology is deeply ingrained in the study of cells, their membranes and particulate inclusions, their metabolism and responses to stimuli.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 100 Tributes also were imposed..for Corne⁓grounds, *plant-plots, groves or parks. 1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxiii. (1614) 45/2 From Creekelad a towne in Wiltshire, the Academie was translated unto Oxford, as unto a plant-plot, both more pleasing and fruitfull.
1896Daily News 12 Dec. 6/2 In the winter there is no occupation for *plant-tin or insect-net.
1924J. A. Thomson Science Old & New xviii. 101 There are *plant-waxes as well as animal-waxes.
▪ II. † plant, n.2 Obs.
Also 4–6 plaunte, 5–6 plante.
[ME. pla(u)nte, a. F. plante:—L. planta sole of the foot.]
The sole of the foot.
1382Wyclif Acts iii. 7 Anoon the groundis and plauntis [gloss or solis] of him ben saddid to gidere; and he lippinge stood, and wandride. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 15/2 Fro the plante of his foot vnto the toppe of his heed was none hole place. 1580Sidney Ps. xviii. x, My heeles and plants Thou didst from stumbling slip sustaine. 1610B. Jonson Masque of Oberon Wks. (Rtldg.) 584/2 Knotty legs, and plants of clay, Seek for ease, or love delay. 1655tr. Com. Hist. Francion xii. 24 Before you put the Iron to the plant of his Feet, give me a cord.
▪ III. † plant, n.3 Obs. rare.
[a. F. plant, in obs. use ‘the ground-plant of a building; also, the foundation, or ground-worke of a building; also, a planting’ (Cotgr.), f. stem of planter to plant. Cf. It. pianta a ground-plan.]
A ground-plan.
1624Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1651) 256 Much less upon a bare Plant thereof, as they call the Schiographia or Ground lines. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 20 The outward Circle of Mr. Jones his Plant No. 6 of the Ruins. Ibid. 25 The Plant of the main Structure is in Diameter, one third Part of the Diameter of the whole Extent, or Circumvallation.
▪ IV. plant, v.|plɑːnt, -æ-|
Forms: α. 1 plantian, plontian, 2–4 plant(i)en, 4–5 plau-, plawnte(n, 4–6 plante, 5 plonte, plaunt, (5 Sc. playnt, 8 plaint), 5– plant.
[OE. plantian, ad. L. plantāre to plant, fix in place: cf. plant n.1 The sense-development agrees in the main with that of F. planter (12th c.) (:—L. plantāre).]
I. To plant a thing in or on a place.
1. a. trans. To set or place in the ground so that it may take root and grow (a living tree or herb, a shoot, cutting, root, bulb, or tuber; sometimes, a seed; also, by extension, a crop, a bed of flowers, a garden, vineyard, orchard, forest, or other collection of plants). Also absol.
c825Vesp. Psalter lxxix. 9 [lxxx. 8] Winᵹeard of Agyptum ðu afirdes awurpe ðeode & plantades hie. c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xl. 292 He underfeng ða halᵹan ᵹesamnunga to plantianne & to ymbhweorfanne, swæ se ceorl deð his ortᵹeard. c1000ælfric Gen. xxi. 33 Abraham þa plantode ænne holt. c1200Vices & Virtues 51 Ys ȝeplanted an iblesced treu amidde ðare hali chereche. a1300Cursor M. 8239 (Cott.) All frutes he plantede in þat place. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 91 Plaunt þou a vine. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxx. 137 He gert plant þerin all maner of erbez. 1526Tindale 1 Cor. iii. 6–7, I have planted; Apollo watred..Nether is he that planteth eny thynge nether he that watreth. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 25 Plant..Wild Olive Trees, or Palms, before the busie Shop. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. ii. v. 334 There are many edicts of the French king, prohibiting the planting of new vineyards. 1849Lytton Caxtons ii. iii, You can plant a very extensive apple-orchard on a grand scale. 1868Queen Victoria Life Highl. 19 Each of us planted two trees, a fir and an oak. 1893B. Mitford Gun-Runner iv. 34 Along the banks of this [watercourse] the careful Jeremiah had planted and sown. 1896Forum July 515 Our forefathers..came to work, to plant, to reap, where they might worship God with freedom. 1961Atlanta Constitution 17 Aug. 5 The people who try to raise and can meat, to plant, grow vegetables, and put them up. 1979Verbatim Summer 8/1 In South Australia a farmer seeds,..and in Queensland he plants.
b. To introduce (a breed of animals) into a country; to deposit (young fish, spawn, oysters) in a river, tidal water, etc.; to naturalize.
189919th Cent. Sept. 405 Brought from the Pacific and ‘planted’ in the Great Lakes, these steel-heads are the most prized of all the Salmonidae. 1903Daily Chron. 25 Mar. 7/2 Mr. Henry Herman Kater..in 1839 chartered the Euphrates for the purpose of planting blood horses in Australia.
c. plant out, to transfer from a pot or frame to the open ground; to set out (seedlings) at intervals, so as to afford room for growth; also, to arrange plants or trees in a piece of ground. Also transf. and fig. (cf. sense 6).
1664J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense 60 Now also plant out your Colly-flowers to have early. 1793Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) V. 54 When they [plants] are planted out, after once hoeing, they will take care of themselves. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 323 The more tender kinds should not be thinned till some time after they have been planted out. 1858Glenny Gard. Every-day Bk. 179/1 Plant out all the sorts and sow once or twice others to succeed. 1901Year-bk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 1900 373 Each orchardist will no doubt develop some method of his own in planting out the orchard. a1910‘Mark Twain’ Autobiogr. (1924) I. 274 They would often plant out eleven columns of new ads on a standing galley. 1917P. S. Allen Let. 8 July (1939) 139 So many of your books are here ‘on deposit’... I wonder if you recognised what was in my mind..when I wrote of Rud. Agricola's ‘planting out his books in friends' houses as pledges of return’. 1927Kipling Limits & Renewals (1932) 170, I was planting out plants from my garden. 1962Times 19 May 11/4 Every partridge-rearing system encounters its critical phase when the birds are ‘planted out’. 1972Shooting Times & Country Mag. 4 Mar. 24/3 ‘Unfed fry’ [sc. trout]..are ready to be planted out to start off their natural lives in the sidestreams and the river. 1975B. Dougherty Green Gardener x. 115 Avoid touching their [sc. tomatoes'] stems when planting out, holding them only by the leaflets.
d. intr. Of seed: To grow into or form plants.
Cf. plant n.1 3, from which this is perh. directly taken.
1849Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. X. i. 55 The seed was put in precisely the same as [in] the preceding year, but it never planted so well.
2. a. To insert, set, or place firmly, to fix in or on the ground or any other body or surface; to set down or up in a firm position; to put or fix in position; to post, station.
1382Wyclif Ps. xciii. [xciv.] 9 He that plauntide the ere, shal he not heren? c1450Two Cookery-bks. 98 Make faire lowe coffyns, and couche þis stuff there-in, And plonte pynes aboue. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 312 Thai plantit doun ane pailyeoun. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iii. i. 36 Hee is to be taught how to plant his pike on the ground. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 26 The Banners which the Banians had planted on the top and highest Branches of it. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 89 In the..Point of Intersection, plant the Stake H. 1714Lond. Gaz. No. 5248/2 He planted the British Colours on the Castle. a1719Addison Rosamond ii. vi, Or this right hand performs its part, And plants a dagger in thy heart. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 485 As soon as the prince had planted his foot on dry ground he called for horses. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xi. (1856) 82 To plant an ice-anchor, a hole is cut obliquely to the surface of the floe. 1874Burnand My time xv. 127 Planting her elbows on her knees. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 263 As the bull passes him, he has to plant these two darts at the same time in the back, and jump aside.
b. To put or place (artillery) in position for discharging. † to plant a siege, to lay siege.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 401 b, Plantyng your ordenaunce here and there on your walles and Bulwarkes. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 748 The Capitaines..planted a strong siege, and enuironed it round about. 1604E. Grimstone Hist. Siege Ostend 214 The siege being planted before Escluse. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xviii. (Roxb.) 140/2 Plant a peece, is to order it for it discharging that it may do service or execution. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. viii. 382 Four swivel guns..were planted at the mouth of each funnel. 1862Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiii. iii. (1872) V. 39 Cannon with case-shot planted themselves in all the thoroughfares.
fig.1650Fuller Pisgah i. i. 1 This cavill is not planted particularly against my indevours.
c. To station (a person); esp. (in slang or vulgar use) to place for a surreptitious or unavowed purpose; to post as a spy or detective. Now esp., to conceal (stolen goods, incriminating evidence, etc.) with a view to misleading a later discoverer. Also (not slang), to introduce (a character, scene, etc.) into a play, film, etc., for some specified purpose.
1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 16 The Person must be dispos'd and planted near his Tree, in such a manner as to stand firm. 1706J. Drake Secret Mem. Earl of Leicester Pref., The guard of his own creatures, spies and dependants which he had planted about her. 1764Foote Patron iii. Wks. 1799 I. 353 Intelligent people are planted, who will bring me..a faithful account of the process. 1777Watson Philip II (1793) I. viii. 333 He planted strong guards along the banks of the river. 1842Cobden in Morley Life ix. (1902) 31/1 He was planted (to use a vulgar phrase) upon me by his party. 1865J. H. A. Bone Petroleum & Petroleum Wells (ed. 2) 153 Frauds are not infrequently perpetrated by ‘planting’ oil in dry wells. 1892Zangwill Bow Mystery 151 You plant one in my house to tell my secrets to Wimp, and you plant one in Wimp's house to tell Wimp's secrets to me. 1930Times Lit. Suppl. 1 May 373/1 The nephew..sought to clinch the available, and misleading, evidence by planting the victim's dental plate on the spot. 1933H. J. Lee Eagle Police Manual 152 Plant, to place incriminating evidence in a man's pocket or elsewhere. 1939E. S. Gardner D. A. draws Circle (1940) 200 Someone is planting evidence. Ibid. 203 It had been planted on him. 1948A. Huxley Let. 16 Jan. (1969) 578, I have been trying to put this question to the general and specialized publics for the last year or two—even succeeding in planting it in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 1950Ibid. 16 Feb. 619 We have to plant the business of the currants, so that we are forced to show them lunching. 1958Listener 30 Oct. 704/3 The man was ‘planted’ as a nervous stammerer, but to be nervous is not necessarily to be a nitwit. 1969It 11–24 Apr. 10/1 Everyone was searched and told to stay clear of the area under the threat of being planted. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 261 Planting microphones was easier. 1974Howard Jrnl. XIV. 43 [The police] are now seen by many West Indians..as racist ‘enemies’, who taunt, intimidate, assault, plant and ‘trump up’ charges. 1978S. Brill Teamsters i. 18 Government investigators..had planted an informant among organized-crime figures in California.
d. refl. To place, station, post, fix oneself; to take up one's position.
1703Rowe Ulyss. iii. i. 1362 Remember well to plant thee at that Door. 1754Chatham Lett. Nephew v. 34 Open your chest, place your head upright, and plant you well upon your legs. 1819Scott Ivanhoe iii, One grisly old wolf-dog alone..had planted himself close by the chair of state. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) iii. 84 [They] persisted in planting themselves steadily in some safe nook.
3. a. To found, establish, institute (a community or society, esp. a colony, city, or church).
c897[see sense 1]. 1555Eden Decades 160 That they myght in this prouince plant a newe colonie or habitation. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 146 This hapeneth by meanes of the Grimme Tartar, that will neither himselfe plant townes to dwell in..nor suffer the Russie..to people those partes. c1656Bramhall Replic. iii. 153 Planting and ordering schools for the education of youth. 1676I. Mather K. Philip's War (1862) 40 In three and twenty Towns, there were Indian Christian Churches Planted. 1700Prior Carmen Seculare 441 Let him unite his Subjects Hearts, Planting Societies for peaceful Arts. 1745De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) II. xli. 134 Planting colonies in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Carolina. 1878Maclear Celts v. (1879) 88 They planted monasteries under abbot-bishops.
b. To settle (a person) in a place, establish as a settler or colonist. (Cf. plantation 4.)
a1300Cursor M. 8033 (Cott.) Passed war a thusand yere, Sin þai war planted in þat place. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 452 Sut[h]faste hirdis, þat has þe playntit in hewine reme to be bettir and happliare. c1425Eng. Conq. Irel. 24 He, as largh man & good prynce..owr lond folke wyll setten & planten stydfastly yn þys lond, nowe & euer. 1535Coverdale 2 Sam. vii. 10, I wyll appoynte a place, and wyll plante them, that they maye remayne there. a1568Satir. Poems Reform. xlvii. 89 In ȝour tolbuth sic presouneris to plant. 1607R. Tindall in Capt. Smith's Wks. (Arb.) Introd. 38 Wee are safelye arryued and planted in this Contreye [Virginia]. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 44 In some Counties, as in Kerry,..few English were ever planted. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. ix. 156 My being planted so well in Brazil. 1870Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. ii. 11 Teutonic soldiers planted as colonists by the Roman government.
c. refl. To establish oneself, settle.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 98 b, To sette and plante himselfe there. 1699Bentley Phal. 152 The Zanclæans invited the remainder of the Milesians to come and plant themselves in Sicily. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 230 Benedict, a monk of Auxerre, who planted himself in solitude among the wild forests by the Ouse.
†d. absol. or intr. To form a colony or colonies; to colonize; to settle. Obs.
1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 459 How King Gregoure with his Power passit in Fyffe..and plantit and pleneist as he passit. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. iii. 36 Thei..made themselues cotages, and began to plante in plompes one by another. 1625Bacon Ess., Plantations (Arb.) 534 If you Plant, where Sauages are, doe not onely entertaine them with Trifles, and Gingles; But vse them iustly, and gratiously. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 159 It seems they are resolved to plant there.
4. To put, set, or place in some local position; to locate, situate; in pa. pple. situated. Also fig.
1558Act 1 Eliz. c. 14 §4 Faire large townes..as well planted for cloth making as the sayd towne of Goddelmine or better. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 110 In them I plant my chiefest pleasure. 1624Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1651) 205 A Town..finely built, but foolishly planted. 1650Fuller Pisgah i. ii. 5 Some perchance will place their scorn, where they ought to plant their wonder. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. iv. (1858) 226 If Neby-Samwil be the high place of Gibeon, then Mizpeh which Dr. Robinson planted there, must be sought elsewhere.
5. Various fig. uses derived from prec. senses.
a. To implant, cause to take root and spring up or grow; to introduce, e.g. an idea or sentiment in the mind.
1415Hoccleve To Sir J. Oldcastle 68 Plante in thyn herte a deep contricioun. 1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 145/2 God..euer shall kepe in his church the right faith and righte beleue by the helpe of his owne hande that planted it. 1538Starkey England i. i. 14 Thes vertues..by the bunfyte and powar of nature in hys hart are rotyd and plantyd. 1709Steele Tatler No. 77 ⁋2 That noble Thirst of Fame and Reputation which is planted in the Hearts of all Men. 1878Maclear Celts v. (1879) 78 It was his great aim to plant the truth in the minds of his hearers.
b. To fix, settle, establish firmly, as a principle, opinion, doctrine, religion, practice, or the like.
1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 159/1 Now were..y⊇ pointes of Christes faith..knowen, as I saye and planted before. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 167 At variaunce with that opinion which Leland would plant. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 309 If the history doth but once beginne to plant her image in our imagination. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil i. i. (1840) 5 [They] planted religion in those countries. 1857Livingstone Trav. vi. 115 Christianity, as planted by modern missions.
c. To establish or set up (a person or thing) in some position or state.
a1562G. Cavendish Wolsey (1893) 230 Sir, ye do entend to delyver them [the keys]..and to plant an other in my rome. 1577F. de L'isle's Legendarie G iv b, Therof ensued the order..established in the Kings council..wherein the Queene mother was planted vpright. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 165 A man in all the worlds new fashion planted. 1593― Rich. II, v. i. 63 Thou which know'st the way To plant vnrightfull Kings. 1622Fletcher & Mass. Span. Curate ii. i, He would entreat your care To plant me in the favour of some man. 1622E. Misselden Free Trade 97 They do what in them lyeth to plant their owne Draperies, and to supplant ours. 1874S. Cox Pilgr. Ps. i. 10 Planting himself on his habit of crying unto God in his distresses.
d. intr. for refl.
1580Sidney Ps. xxv. vii, Such as keep His covenaunt, And on His testimonys plant. 1594Willobie Avisa xlv. v, No reason rules, where sorrowes plant.
II. With the place, etc., as object.
6. a. To furnish or stock (a piece of land) with growing plants. Also with to.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xvi. 17 b, The earth is carried into it and planted with all sorts of excellent fruteful trees. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa viii. 303 The citie of Bochin..is now planted with date-trees. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 171 With wild Thyme and Sav'ry, plant the Plain. 1799T. R. Malthus Diary 16 July (1966) 159 There are many grounds about the town planted to potatoes. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. ii, It is not supposed that they were ever planted, but rather that they are pieces of unreclaimed land, with the withered vegetation of the original brick-field. 1901Year-bk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 1900 373 The land should be planted to a crop for at least a year or two before setting out the trees. a1907Mod. He enclosed a piece of the common and planted it with firs. 1941E. P. O'Donnell Great Big Doorstep 92 She reached a field planted to okra, the stalks rising taller than she. 1949E. Hyams Not in our Stars xvi. 195 A four-acre field..which Drover had planted to cherries in the previous season. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 12 June 9/1 Grapevines are now found..creeping into fields once planted to pears and apples.
b. To furnish or provide with a number of things set or disposed over the surface.
a1400–50Alexander 3146 Þe sepulture of a sire..Was of an athill amatist..Plantid full of palmetres & many proud fowles. c1470Henry Wallace vi. 345 Thai playntyt thar feild with tentis and pailȝonis. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 62 Thy Temples should be planted presently With Hornes. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 113 The Portugall..built a strong castle here, planted it with seventeene cannon..and a thousand musquets. 1711Addison Spect. No. 159 ⁋8 A vast Ocean planted with innumerable Islands. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 556 A battery was planted with some small guns taken from the ships.
c. To furnish a district with settlers or colonists; to colonize or settle; to stock with inhabitants, cattle, etc.
c1608in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 75 The necessity of planting Leitrim with the greater part of British. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. 195 He..grants that Iceland, and some part of Groenland were visited and planted by Ericus Ruffus. 1762Gentl. Mag. 101 We cannot spare people to plant those islands. 1869Rawlinson Anc. Hist. 31 Planted it [Media] with cities. 1904Dundee Advert. 5 July 6/3 The other 23 States being..thinly ‘planted’ with horned animals.
†d. To furnish (a vacant church) with a minister. Sc. Obs.
1574in Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 50 That vackand Kirks be planted, and stipends assigned to them. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 87 Most churches are planted and fraught with single reading ministers. 1721Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. I. iii. 119 The Bishops are appointed to plant the Kirks which have vaiked since the Year 1637.
III. Colloquial uses, of slang or vulgar origin.
7. a. To deliver (a blow, stroke, thrust) with a definite aim; to cause to alight or fall. (So F. planter un soufflet sur{ddd}) Pugilistic slang.
1808Sporting Mag. XXXII. 76 Gully made play, and planted two other blows on his adversary's head. 1829Marryat F. Mildmay xxvi, I planted a stomacher in his fifth button. 1883F. M. Peard Contrad. xxii, You know how to plant a straight blow just where it is most telling.
b. fig.
1847–8H. Miller First Impr. xix. (1857) 337 He finds every Highlander..adroit of fence, in planting upon him as many queries as can possibly be thrust in. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 96 The thin tones of Lady Vandaleur planting icy repartees at every opening.
8. To hide, to conceal; esp. stolen goods. orig. Thieves' slang; now esp. Australian.
1610Rowlands Martin Mark-all E iij b, To Plant, to hide. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Plant, to lay, place, or hide. 1785in Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., To hide, or conceal any person..is termed planting him. 1827P. Cunningham N.S. Wales II. xxi. 60 ‘Pa! Bill has planted it’ (hid it). 1837J. D. Lang N.S. Wales II. 51 They..observed the robbers plant or conceal a quantity of the property, of which they had just plundered the cottage. 1840Sydney Herald 10 Feb., Conveying horses out of the way, or planting them, as it is technically called, until a reward is offered for their restoration. 1902Daily Chron. 29 Dec. 5/2 The plunder was ‘planted’ under the floor of a restaurant in Geelong.
9. a. To place (gold dust, ore, etc.) in a mining claim in order to give a false impression of its productiveness; to ‘salt’. Gold-digging slang.
1850Reade Gold iv. i, Levi. This dust is from Birmingham, and neither Australian or natural. Rob. The man planted it for you. 1886P. Clarke New Chum vi. 72 A ‘salted claim’, a ‘pit’ sold for a {pstlg}10 note in which a nugget worth a few shillings had before been ‘planted’.
b. To plan or ‘get up’ by fraudulent methods; to devise as a ‘plant’ or fraudulent scheme.
1892Daily News 27 May 3/4 Mr. Keay maintained that the affair was ‘planted’ between the two brothers, the Indian resident having..opportunities to carry out that object.
10. To abandon. [Cf. F. planter là.]
[1814Scott Wav. liii, And so he glided off and left me planté là.] 1821Byron Juan iii. iv, But one thing's pretty sure: a woman planted (Unless at once she plunge for life in prayers) After a decent time must be gallanted. 1852Hoskyns Talpa 18 Here I was, fairly planted, at the first onset. 1858Hogg Life Shelley II. 399 For some six years..he makes her a most exemplary husband; and then, all at once, he plants her; plants her at once and for ever.
11. To bury (a dead person). slang (orig. U.S.).
1855Harper's Mag. Dec. 37/1 Let it [sc. yellow fever] catch hold of a crowd of ‘Johnny come latelys’, and it plants them at once. 1866‘Mark Twain’ Lett. fr. Hawaii (1967) 242 It's about the orneryest thing for a monument I've ever struck yet... If I was planted under it, I'd highst it. 1888[see flamdoodle]. 1927C. A. W. Monckton Some Experiences of New Guinea Resident Magistrate 2nd Ser. i. 16 There's Alligator Jack and Red Bill..planted here, and Gawd, 'E knows whether they have rested easy. 1931Galsworthy Maid in Waiting ii. 10 ‘Is he to be planted here?’ ‘I expect in the Cathedral, but Father will know.’ 1967C. Rougvie When Johnny Died iii. 66 It was raining when we planted him, and I thought he'd get out of his coffin. 1974R. Jeffries Mistakenly in Mallorca xv. 143 The funeral must be fixed up at once. Where did non-Catholics get planted?
Add:[I.] [2.] e. To place (a bomb) in a building, etc., esp. as a terrorist act.
1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 56 If we can plant a bomb or two in the right spot, it will bottle up any Germans working inside? 1937R. Narayan Bachelor of Arts ii. 46 Did you try to plant a bomb..in his house? 1968L. W. Robinson Assassin (1969) xvi. 199 He planted another bomb... Bomb squad says it's made of plastique. 1981G. Clare Last Waltz in Vienna (1982) i. 42 They planted bombs in Jewish shops.
[III.] [7.] c. spec. to place (a kiss) on the lips, cheek, etc., usu. with gusto or deliberation.
1906Galsworthy Man of Property i. ix. 122 Moved by some inexplicable desire to assert his proprietorship, he rose from his chair and planted a kiss on his wife's shoulder. 1937G. Frankau More of Us xii. 125 Was this The ruleress of waves, R.N., all-British, Who stooped to plant the Cytherean Kiss? 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §355/7 Kiss,..Plant a smacker. 1986Times 16 June 5/4 About 100 people applauded and cheered his return and women planted kisses on his cheek. |