plantation
[plan-tey-shuh n]
- a usually large farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, or the like is cultivated, usually by resident laborers.
- a group of planted trees or plants.
- History/Historical.
- a colony or new settlement.
- the establishment of a colony or new settlement.
- Archaic. the planting of seeds, young trees, etc.
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- (of clothing, furnishings, etc.) suitable for a plantation or for a tropical or semitropical country.
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Origin of plantation
Plantation
[plan-tey-shuh n]
- a town in S Florida.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for plantation
Contemporary Examples
Hamer married in 1944 and moved with her husband to Ruleville, Miss., where they were sharecroppers on a plantation.
Remembering Civil Rights Heroine Fannie Lou Hamer: 'I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired'Lottie L. Joiner
September 2, 2014
After firing that off, he clumsily asked what a plantation mentality is.
“I think you have more of a plantation mentality than I do,” he said.
Located in northern California, the Plantation Farm Camp takes everything back to the basics.
Mississippi was “probably the worst, because of its plantation aristocracy.”
Historical Examples
What was to become of the slaves on this plantation now that the master was dead?
Harriet, The Moses of Her PeopleSarah H. Bradford
I did not stop to put on my clothes until I had got two or three miles from the plantation.
Biography of a SlaveCharles Thompson
There was plenty to do on the plantation, and there was no good cause for sending me away.
Biography of a SlaveCharles Thompson
On going to them I found a resting-place in a fodder-loft, in the horse-lot of the plantation.
Biography of a SlaveCharles Thompson
This was my position on the plantation a short time after school was out for the term.
Biography of a SlaveCharles Thompson
plantation
- an estate, esp in tropical countries, where cash crops such as rubber, oil palm, etc, are grown on a large scale
- a group of cultivated trees or plants
- (formerly) a colony or group of settlers
- rare the planting of seeds, shoots, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for plantation
n.
mid-15c., "action of planting," from Middle French plantation, from Latin plantationem (nominative plantatio) "a planting," noun of action from past participle stem of plantare "to plant" (see plant). Historically used for "colony, settlement in a new land" (1610s); meaning "large farm on which tobacco or cotton is grown" is first recorded 1706.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper