Word Direct Answers

What does "plant" mean?

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

Additional senses

  1. 2.The sole of the foot. [R.] "Knotty legs and plants of clay." B. Jonson.
  2. 3.(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.
  3. 4.A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick. [Slang] It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey. Dickens.
  4. 5.(Zoöl.) (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 (Zoöl.), any one of numerous hemipterous insects which injure the foliage of plants, as Lygus lineolaris, which damages wheat and trees. -- Plant cutter (Zoöl.), a South American passerine bird of the genus Phytotoma, family Phytotomidæ. It has a serrated bill with which it cuts off the young shoots and buds of plants, often doing much injury. -- Plant louse (Zoöl.), any small hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the families Aphidæ and Psyllidæ; an aphid.
  5. 6.To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maize.
  6. 7.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.
  7. 8.3. To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest.
  8. 9.To engender; to generate; to set the germ of. It engenders choler, planteth anger. Shak.
  9. 10.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.
  10. 11.To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen.
  11. 12.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.
  12. 13.To set up; to install; to instate. We will plant some other in the throne. Shak.
  13. 14.To perform the act of planting. I have planted; Apollos watered. 1 Cor. iii. 6.

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