/plænt/, [pʰl̥ænt], /plɑːnt/
OriginFrom Middle English plante, from Old English plante (“young tree or shrub, herb newly planted”), from Proto-West Germanic *plantu, from Latin planta (“sprout, shoot, cutting”). Broader sense of "any vegetable life, vegetation generally" is from Old French plante. Doublet of clan (borrowed through Celtic languages) and planta (directly from Latin).
The verb is from Middle English planten, from Old English plantian (“to plant”), from Latin plantāre, later influenced by Old French planter. Compare also Dutch planten (“to plant”), German pflanzen (“to plant”), Swedish plantera (“to plant”), Icelandic planta (“to plant”).
The factory and machinery senses comes from the Latin sense of "any vegetable production that serves to propagate the species," which refers to something that produces.
- An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis. Typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.
“The garden had a couple of trees, and a cluster of colourful plants around the border.”
“In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from ano”
- An organism of the kingdom Plantae. Now specifically, a living organism of the Embryophyta (land plants) or of the Chlorophyta (green algae), a eukaryote that includes double-membraned chloroplasts in its cells containing chlorophyll a and b, or any organism closely related to such an organism.
- Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
- proscribedAny creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi.
“Some plants, such as mushrooms found in the wild, are difficult to identify. Some plants are poisonous, and an inexperienced individual may make mistakes in identification of wild plants, with tragic ”
- countableA factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
“The company has production plants in three countries.”
“My dad worked at the plant for 27 years.”
“The US group does have another vaccine plant in Ireland – in Carlow – but it is understood the Dundalk site is the only live virus vaccine facility in MSD’s Irish network.”
- uncountableMachinery and other supplies and equipment, such as the kind used in heavy industry, light industry, earthmoving, or construction.
“Near-synonym: capital equipment”
“industrial plant”
“refrigeration plant”
- An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.
“That gun’s not mine! It’s a plant! I’ve never seen it before!”
- obsolete, slangA stash or cache of hidden goods.
- Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
- A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
- A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
“O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.”
“The company's product range includes tools, construction plant, diggers, dumpers and rollers.”
- obsoleteA young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
“Take, Shepherd, take a Plant of ſtubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a ſturdy ſtroke: / Or with hard Stones, demoliſh from afar / His haughty Creſt, the feat of all the War.”
- obsoleteThe sole of the foot.
“Knotty legs, and plants of clay, / Seek for eaſe, or love delay.”
- dated, slangA plan; a swindle; a trick.
“It wasn’t a bad plant that of mine, on Fikey, the man accused of forging the Sou’ Westeru Railway debentures—it was only t’ other day—because the reason why? I’ll tell you.”
- An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
- US, dialectalA young oyster suitable for transplanting.
- A system, such as a motor, whose behaviour is being regulated or controlled by a control system.
- UK, obsolete, slangA position in the street to sell from; a pitch.
- ambitransitiveTo place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
- transitiveTo furnish or supply with plants.
“to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest”
“His father had given him a little square bed in a corner of the garden, which he had planted with corn two days before.”
“With your mouse, you plant a garden by selecting plants from a database of 450 of the most common flowers, shrubs, and trees.”
- transitiveTo place (an object, or sometimes a person), often with the implication of intending deceit.
“That gun’s not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!”
“Not only that, I thought, but cynics would now theorise that the interview piece was a PR exercise, a planted story designed as damage-limitation in the event that some probing journalist revealed all”
- transitiveTo place or set something firmly or with conviction.
“to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a flag; to plant one’s feet on solid ground”
“Plant your feet firmly and give the rope a good tug.”
“First Anelka curled a shot wide from just outside the box, then Lampard planted a header over the bar from Bosingwa's cross.”
- transitiveTo place in the ground.
“God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.”
“Sarah, she kissed each of her grandparents on the forehead. They were planted in a graveyard behind the church.”
- transitiveTo engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
“It engenders choler, planteth anger.”
- transitiveTo furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish.
“to plant a colony”
“planting of countries like planting of woods”
- transitiveTo introduce and establish the principles or seeds of.
“to plant Christianity among the heathen”
- transitiveTo set up; to install; to instate.
“We will plant some other in the throne.”
- countable, uncountableA surname from English.
- countable, uncountableA surname from French.
- countable, uncountableA surname, variant of Plante.
- countable, uncountableAn unincorporated community in Van Buren County, Arkansas, United States.
Formsplants(plural) · plants(present, singular, third-person) · planting(participle, present) · planted(participle, past) · planted(past) · Plants(plural)