plant

[ plant, plahnt ]

noun

1. Botany. any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts: some classification schemes may include fungi, algae, bacteria, and certain single-celled eukaryotes that have plantlike qualities, as rigid cell walls or the use of photosynthesis.
2. an herb or other small vegetable growth, in contrast with a tree or a shrub.
3. a seedling or a growing slip, especially one ready for transplanting.
4. the equipment, including the fixtures, machinery, tools, etc., and often the buildings, necessary to carry on any industrial business:

   a manufacturing plant.

5. the complete equipment or apparatus for a particular mechanical process or operation:

   the heating plant for a home.

6. the buildings, equipment, etc., of an institution:

   the sprawling plant of the university.

7. Slang. something intended to trap, decoy, or lure, as criminals.
8. Slang. a scheme to trap, trick, swindle, or defraud.
9. a person, placed in an audience, whose rehearsed or prepared reactions, comments, etc., appear spontaneous to the rest of the audience.
10. a person placed secretly in a group or organization, as by a foreign government, to obtain internal or secret information, stir up discontent, etc.
11. Theater. a line of dialogue, or a character, action, etc., introducing an idea or theme that will be further developed at a later point in the play:

    Afterward we remembered the suicide plant in the second act.

verb (used with object)

1. to put or set in the ground for growth, as seeds, young trees, etc.
2. to furnish or stock (land) with plants:

   to plant a section with corn.

3. to establish or implant (ideas, principles, doctrines, etc.):

   to plant a love for learning in growing children.

4. to introduce (a breed of animals) into a country.
5. to deposit (young fish, or spawn) in a river, lake, etc.
6. to bed (oysters).
7. to insert or set firmly in or on the ground or some other body or surface:

   to plant posts along a road.

8. Theater. to insert or place (an idea, person, or thing) in a play.
9. to place; put.
10. to place with great force, firmness, or determination:

    He planted himself in the doorway as if daring us to try to enter. He planted a big kiss on his son's cheek.

11. to station; post:

    to plant a police officer on every corner.

12. to locate; situate:

    Branch stores are planted all over.

13. to establish (a colony, city, etc.); found.
14. to settle (persons), as in a colony.
15. to say or place (something) in order to obtain a desired result, especially one that will seem spontaneous:

    The police planted the story in the newspaper in order to trap the thief.

16. Carpentry. to nail, glue, or otherwise attach (a molding or the like) to a surface.
17. to place (a person) secretly in a group to function as a spy or to promote discord.
18. Slang. to hide or conceal, as stolen goods.

plant

¹

/ plɑːnt /

noun

1. 1. the land, buildings, and equipment used in carrying on an industrial, business, or other undertaking or service
   2. ( as modifier )

      plant costs

2. a factory or workshop
3. mobile mechanical equipment for construction, road-making, etc

plant

²

/ plɑːnt /

noun

1. any living organism that typically synthesizes its food from inorganic substances, possesses cellulose cell walls, responds slowly and often permanently to a stimulus, lacks specialized sense organs and nervous system, and has no powers of locomotion
2. such an organism that is green, terrestrial, and smaller than a shrub or tree; a herb
3. a cutting, seedling, or similar structure, esp when ready for transplantation
4. informal.
   a thing positioned secretly for discovery by another, esp in order to incriminate an innocent person
5. billiards snooker a position in which the cue ball can be made to strike an intermediate which then pockets another ball

verb

1. often foll by out to set (seeds, crops, etc) into (ground) to grow
2. to place firmly in position
3. to establish; found
4. to implant in the mind
5. slang.
   to deliver (a blow)
6. informal.
   to position or hide, esp in order to deceive or observe
7. to place (young fish, oysters, spawn, etc) in (a lake, river, etc) in order to stock the water

plant

/ plănt /

1. Any of a wide variety of multicellular eukaryotic organisms, belonging to the kingdom Plantae and including the bryophytes and vascular plants. Plant cells have cell walls made of cellulose. Except for a few specialized symbionts, plants have chlorophyll and manufacture their own food through photosynthesis. Most plants grow in a fixed location and reproduce sexually, showing an alternation of generations between a diploid stage (with each cell having two sets of chromosomes) and haploid stage (with each cell having one set of chromosomes) in their life cycle. The first fossil plants date from the Silurian period. Formerly the algae, slime molds, dinoflagellates, and fungi, among other groups, were classified as plants, but now these are considered to belong to other kingdoms.
2. See Table at taxonomy

Derived Forms

• ˈplantˌlike, adjective
• ˈplantable, adjective

Other Words From

• plant·a·ble adjective
• plant·less adjective
• plant·like adjective
• mis·plant verb (used with object)
• o·ver·plant verb (used with object)
• pre·plant verb (used with object)
• self-plant·ed adjective
• sub·plant noun
• un·der·plant verb (used with object)
• un·plant·a·ble adjective
• un·plant·ed adjective
• well-plant·ed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of plant¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun plaunt(e), plant(e); in part continuing Old English plante “sapling, young plant,” from Latin planta “a shoot, sprig, scion (for planting), plant”; in part from Old French plante, from Latin planta; Middle English verb plaunten, planten; in part continuing Old English plantian, from Latin plantāre “to plant”; in part from Old French planter, from Latin plantāre

Word History and Origins

Origin of plant¹

C20: special use of plant ¹

Origin of plant²

Old English, from Latin planta a shoot, cutting

Example Sentences

Further evidence has come from two more recent outbreaks, the first at a seafood processing plant in Oregon and the second at a chicken processing plant in Arkansas.

From No Straight News

Nearly one in every three of the plants had pesticide levels known to be lethal to monarchs.

From Science News For Students

Wadley’s team also found bits of burned wood in the bedding containing fragments of camphor leaves, an aromatic plant that can be used as a bug repellent.

From Science News

Altogether, 9% of the nation’s meat plant workers—around 30,000 people—have contracted the virus, according to a recent analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From Quartz

The biggest machine learning algorithms use closer to a nuclear power plant’s worth of electricity and racks of chips to learn.

From Singularity Hub 

His most recommended plant was tree ivy—its juices sprayed up the nostrils.

From The Daily Beast

There was Petr Miller, a forgeman from the Prague ČKD plant.

From The Daily Beast

His first feature film, Jellyfish Eyes, debuted last year and was set in a town near a threatening nuclear power plant.

From The Daily Beast

Same for driveway pavers and meat and poultry plant workers.

From The Daily Beast

Some of those songs now have names other than Page and Robert Plant in their credits.

From The Daily Beast

As there are still many varieties of the plant grown in America, so there doubtless was when cultivated by the Indians.

From Project Gutenberg

The plant as a whole remains green until late in the autumn.

From Project Gutenberg

The Smooth Naked Horsetail is a common plant, specially by the sides of streams and pools.

From Project Gutenberg

The relation existing between the balmy plant and the commerce of the world is of the strongest kind.

From Project Gutenberg

Tobacco is a strong growing plant resisting heat and drought to a far (p. 018) greater extent than most plants.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bury
• cover
• farm
• grow
• implant
• raise
• scatter
• sow
• transplant