Plough
[plaʊ]
Definition
(n. & v.) See Plow.
(n.) A well-known implement, drawn by horses, mules, oxen, or other power, for turning up the soil to prepare it for bearing crops; also used to furrow or break up the soil for other purposes; as, the subsoil plow; the draining plow.
(n.) Fig.: Agriculture; husbandry.
(n.) A carucate of land; a plowland.
(n.) A joiner's plane for making grooves; a grooving plane.
(n.) An implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.
(n.) Same as Charles's Wain.
(v. t.) To turn up, break up, or trench, with a plow; to till with, or as with, a plow; as, to plow the ground; to plow a field.
(v. t.) To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in; to run through, as in sailing.
(v. t.) To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plow. See Plow, n., 5.
(n.) To cut a groove in, as in a plank, or the edge of a board; especially, a rectangular groove to receive the end of a shelf or tread, the edge of a panel, a tongue, etc.
(v. i.) To labor with, or as with, a plow; to till or turn up the soil with a plow; to prepare the soil or bed for anything.
Editor: Rufus
Definition
n. an instrument for turning up the soil to prepare it for seed: tillage: a joiner's plane for making grooves.—v.t. to turn up with the plough: to make furrows or ridges in: to tear: to divide: to run through as in sailing: (university slang) to reject in an examination.—v.i. to work with a plough.—adj. Plough′able capable of being ploughed: arable.—ns. Plough′boy a boy who drives or guides horses in ploughing; Plough′er; Plough′gate (Scots law) a quantity of land of the extent of 100 acres Scots; Plough′ing; Plough′-ī′ron the coulter of a plough; Plough′-land land suitable for tillage: as much land as could be tilled with one plough a hide of land; Plough′man a man who ploughs: a husbandman: a rustic:—pl. Plough′men; Plough′-Mon′day the Monday after Twelfth Day when according to the old usage the plough should be set to work again after the holidays; Plough′-tail the end of a plough where the handles are; Plough′-tree a plough-handle; Plough′wright one who makes and mends ploughs.—Put one's hand to the plough to begin an undertaking.—Snow plough a strong triangular frame of wood for clearing snow off roads railways &c. drawn by horses or by a locomotive; Steam plough a plough driven by a stationary steam-engine; The Plough the seven bright stars in the constellation of the Great Bear.
Edited by Ahmed
Examples
- They would manufacture more and plough less. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Egyptian Crooked Stick, Precursor of Modern Plough. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- They will fight nature no longer as dull conscripts of the pick and plough, but for a splendid conquest. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- We worship the plough, and not the fruit. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- You have already as good as put your hand to the plough: you are too consistent to withdraw it. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Charles Newbold in 1797 took out the first patent in the United States for a plough--all parts cast in one piece of solid iron except the beam and handles. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- They disappear before the railway snow-plough more quickly than they came. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The gunboats, however, ploughed their way through without other damage than to their appearance. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- From the coast inland, stretch, between flowered lanes and hedges, rolling pasture-lands of rich green made all the more vivid by th e deep reddish tint of the ploughed fields. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- We saw no ploughed fields, very few villages, no trees or grass or vegetation of any kind, scarcely, and hardly ever an isolated house. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I sometimes feared we had missed the way and got into the ploughed grounds or the marshes. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The clocks are on the stroke of three, and the furrow ploughed among the populace is turning round, to come on into the place of execution, and end. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Christian controversies, with their competition for adherents, ploughed the ground for the harvest of popular education. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The Anatolian peninsula had been ploughed and harrowed by the Persian armies; the great cities had been plundered and sacked. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Jethro Tull in England shortly after invented and introduced a combined system of drilling, ploughing and cultivating. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Gerald likes the man ploughing the best, his trousers are torn, he is ploughing with an ox, being I suppose a German peasant. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- He brought me a lovely tropical parrot in faience, of Dresden ware, also a man ploughing, and two mice climbing up a stalk, also in faience. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Guns which were heard at Brussels were ploughing up their ranks, and comrades falling, and the resolute survivors closing in. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- You silly thing, he was a Roman farmer, and he was ploughing. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The ploughing of certain sacred lands near Delphi by the Phocians was, for example, the pretext for a sanguinary Sacred War. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Having passed the Island of Cythera during the night, by next morning the yacht was ploughing the placid waters of the Cretan Sea. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Disk cultivators are those in which disk blades instead of ploughs are used with which to disturb the soil already broken. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- This has been evidenced by the fact that in the United States alone nearly eleven thousand patents on ploughs were issued during the nineteenth century. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- They also contriv ed to temper the metal, and to make helmets, swords, lance-points, ploughs, tools, and other implements of iron. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The general features, the beam, handles, and share, have existed in ploughs from the earliest ages in history. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The inventions of centuries in ploughs have proceeded along the lines of the elements above enumerated. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- There were ploughs which were made heavy or light as the different soils required, and there were a variety of farm implements, such as spades, hoes, harrows and rakes. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Ridges of faces are thrown to this side and to that, and the ploughs go steadily onward. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
Editor: Segre