plain
11 definitions found
plain - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Plain \Plain\, v. i. [OE. playne, pleyne, fr. F. plaindre. See
Plaint.]
To lament; to bewail; to complain. [Archaic & Poetic]
--Milton.
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We with piteous heart unto you pleyne. --Chaucer.
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Plain \Plain\, v. t.
To lament; to mourn over; as, to plain a loss. [Archaic &
Poetic] --Sir J. Harrington.
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Plain \Plain\, a. [Compar. Plainer; superl. Plainest.] [F.,
level, flat, fr. L. planus, perhaps akin to E. floor. Cf.
Llano, Piano, Plan, Plane level, a level surface.]
1. Without elevations or depressions; flat; level; smooth;
even. See Plane.
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The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain. --Isa. xl. 4.
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2. Open; clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
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Our troops beat an army in plain fight. --Felton.
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3. Not intricate or difficult; evident; manifest; obvious;
clear; unmistakable. "'T is a plain case." --Shak.
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4.
(a) Void of extraneous beauty or ornament; without
conspicious embellishment; not rich; simple.
(b) Not highly cultivated; unsophisticated; free from show
or pretension; simple; natural; homely; common. "Plain
yet pious Christians." --Hammond. "The plain people."
--A. Lincoln.
(c) Free from affectation or disguise; candid; sincere;
artless; honest; frank. "An honest mind, and plain."
--Shak.
(d) Not luxurious; not highly seasoned; simple; as, plain
food.
(e) Without beauty; not handsome; homely; as, a plain
woman.
(f) Not variegated, dyed, or figured; as, plain muslin.
(g) Not much varied by modulations; as, a plain tune.
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Plain battle, open battle; pitched battle. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.
Plain chant (Mus.) Same as Plain song, below.
Plain chart (Naut.), a chart laid down on Mercator's
projection.
Plain dealer.
(a) One who practices plain dealing.
(b) A simpleton. [Obs.] --Shak.
Plain dealing. See under Dealing.
Plain molding (Join.), molding of which the surfaces are
plain figures.
Plain sewing, sewing of seams by simple and common
stitches, in distinct from fancy work, embroidery, etc.;
-- distinguished also from designing and fitting garments.
Plain song.
(a) The Gregorian chant, or canto fermo; the prescribed
melody of the Roman Catholic service, sung in unison,
in tones of equal length, and rarely extending beyond
the compass of an octave.
(b) A simple melody.
Plain speaking, plainness or bluntness of speech.
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Syn: Level; flat; smooth; open; artless; unaffected;
undisguised; frank; sincere; honest; candid; ingenuous;
unembellished; downright; blunt; clear; simple;
distinct; manifest; obvious; apparent. See Manifest.
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Plain \Plain\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plained; p. pr. & vb. n.
Plaining.] [Cf. Plane, v.]
1. To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
[R.]
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We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
--Wither.
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2. To make plain or manifest; to explain.
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What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech. --Shak.
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Plain \Plain\, adv.
In a plain manner; plainly. "To speak short and pleyn."
--Chaucer. "To tell you plain." --Shak.
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Plain \Plain\, n. [Cf. OF. plaigne, F. plaine. See Plain, a.]
1. Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of
land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by
inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American
plains, or prairies.
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Descending fro the mountain into playn. --Chaucer.
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Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. --Milton.
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2. A field of battle. [Obs.] --Arbuthnot.
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Lead forth my soldiers to the plain. --Shak.
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plain - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :
plain
adv 1: unmistakably (`plain' is often used informally for
`plainly'); "the answer is obviously wrong"; "she was in
bed and evidently in great pain"; "he was manifestly too
important to leave off the guest list"; "it is all
patently nonsense"; "she has apparently been living here
for some time"; "I thought he owned the property, but
apparently not"; "You are plainly wrong"; "he is plain
stubborn" [syn: obviously, evidently, manifestly,
patently, apparently, plainly, plain]
adj 1: clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment;
"the effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who
sees the parched fields"; "evident hostility"; "manifest
disapproval"; "patent advantages"; "made his meaning
plain"; "it is plain that he is no reactionary"; "in
plain view" [syn: apparent, evident, manifest,
patent, plain, unmistakable]
2: not elaborate or elaborated; simple; "plain food"; "stuck to
the plain facts"; "a plain blue suit"; "a plain rectangular
brick building" [ant: fancy]
3: lacking patterns especially in color [syn: plain,
unpatterned] [ant: patterned]
4: not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer
wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" [syn: plain, sheer,
unmingled, unmixed]
5: free from any effort to soften to disguise; "the plain and
unvarnished truth"; "the unvarnished candor of old people and
children" [syn: plain, unvarnished]
6: lacking embellishment or ornamentation; "a plain hair style";
"unembellished white walls"; "functional architecture
featuring stark unornamented concrete" [syn: plain, bare,
spare, unembellished, unornamented]
7: lacking in physical beauty or proportion; "a homely child";
"several of the buildings were downright homely"; "a plain
girl with a freckled face" [syn: homely, plain]
n 1: extensive tract of level open land; "they emerged from the
woods onto a vast open plain"; "he longed for the fields of
his youth" [syn: plain, field, champaign]
2: a basic knitting stitch [syn: knit, knit stitch, plain,
plain stitch]
v 1: express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or
unhappiness; "My mother complains all day"; "She has a lot
to kick about" [syn: complain, kick, plain, sound off
, quetch, kvetch] [ant: cheer, cheer up, chirk up
]
plain - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :
PLAIN
Programming LAnguage for INteraction. Pascal-like, with
extensions for database, string handling, exceptions and
pattern matching. "Revised Report on the Programming Language
PLAIN", A. Wasserman, SIGPLAN Notices 6(5):59-80 (May 1981).
plain - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :
Plain
(1.) Heb. 'abel (Judg. 11:33), a "grassy plain" or "meadow."
Instead of "plains of the vineyards," as in the Authorized
Version, the Revised Version has "Abel-cheramim" (q.v.), comp.
Judg. 11:22; 2 Chr. 16:4.
(2.) Heb. 'elon (Gen. 12:6; 13:18; 14:13; 18:1; Deut. 11:30;
Judg. 9:6), more correctly "oak," as in the Revised Version;
margin, "terebinth."
(3.) Heb. bik'ah (Gen. 11:2; Neh. 6:2; Ezek. 3:23; Dan. 3:1),
properly a valley, as rendered in Isa. 40:4, a broad plain
between mountains. In Amos 1:5 the margin of Authorized Version
has "Bikathaven."
(4.) Heb. kikar, "the circle," used only of the Ghor, or the
low ground along the Jordan (Gen. 13:10-12; 19:17, 25, 28, 29;
Deut. 34:3; 2 Sam. 18:23; 1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chr. 4:17; Neh. 3:22;
12:28), the floor of the valley through which it flows. This
name is applied to the Jordan valley as far north as Succoth.
(5.) Heb. mishor, "level ground," smooth, grassy table-land
(Deut. 3:10; 4:43; Josh. 13:9, 16, 17, 21; 20:8; Jer. 48:21), an
expanse of rolling downs without rock or stone. In these
passages, with the article prefixed, it denotes the plain in the
tribe of Reuben. In 2 Chr. 26:10 the plain of Judah is meant.
Jerusalem is called "the rock of the plain" in Jer. 21:13,
because the hills on which it is built rise high above the
plain.
(6.) Heb. 'arabah, the valley from the Sea of Galilee
southward to the Dead Sea (the "sea of the plain," 2 Kings
14:25; Deut. 1:1; 2:8), a distance of about 70 miles. It is
called by the modern Arabs the Ghor. This Hebrew name is found
in Authorized Version (Josh. 18:18), and is uniformly used in
the Revised Version. Down through the centre of this plain is a
ravine, from 200 to 300 yards wide, and from 50 to 100 feet
deep, through which the Jordan flows in a winding course. This
ravine is called the "lower plain."
The name Arabah is also applied to the whole Jordan valley
from Mount Hermon to the eastern branch of the Red Sea, a
distance of about 200 miles, as well as to that portion of the
valley which stretches from the Sea of Galilee to the same
branch of the Red Sea, i.e., to the Gulf of Akabah about 100
miles in all.
(7.) Heb. shephelah, "low ground," "low hill-land," rendered
"vale" or "valley" in Authorized Version (Josh. 9:1; 10:40;
11:2; 12:8; Judg. 1:9; 1 Kings 10:27). In Authorized Version (1
Chr. 27:28; 2 Chr. 26:10) it is also rendered "low country." In
Jer. 17:26, Obad. 1:19, Zech. 7:7, "plain." The Revised Version
renders it uniformly "low land." When it is preceded by the
article, as in Deut. 1:7, Josh. 11:16; 15:33, Jer. 32:44; 33:13,
Zech. 7:7, "the shephelah," it denotes the plain along the
Mediterranean from Joppa to Gaza, "the plain of the
Philistines." (See VALLEY.)
plain - U.S. Gazetteer (1990) :
Plain, WI (village, FIPS 63125)
Location: 43.27829 N, 90.04218 W
Population (1990): 691 (293 housing units)
Area: 1.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 53577
plain - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :
508 Moby Thesaurus words for "plain":
Attic, Bohemian, Ciceronian, Lebensraum, Mickey Mouse, Spartan,
abrupt, absolute, absolutely, affable, agricultural region,
air space, all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-out, all-pervading,
apparent, arable land, articulate, artless, ascetic, audible,
austere, back country, bald, bare, baseborn, basic, beautiless,
below the salt, billiard table, black belt, blemished, blotted,
bluff, blunt, born, born yesterday, bowling green, broad,
broad-based, brusque, cacophonic, cacophonous, campestral,
campestrian, campo, candid, casual, champaign, chaste, cheerful,
childlike, citrus belt, classic, classical, clean, clean-cut,
clear, clear as crystal, clear as day, clear space, clear-cut,
clearance, clearing, cockney, coherent, colorless, comfortable,
common, commonplace, comprehensive, confiding, congenital,
connected, consistent, conspicuous, consummate, contrastive,
cordial, corn belt, cotton belt, countryside, cozy, crisp,
crystal-clear, crystalline, cushy, dead flat, dead level,
deep-dyed, defaced, defined, definite, degage, desert, direct,
discernible, discreet, disfigured, distant prospect, distinct,
distinctive, down, downright, drab, dry, dull, dust bowl,
dyed-in-the-wool, dysphemistic, dysphemized, earth, easy,
easy as pie, easygoing, effortless, egregious, elegant, elementary,
empty view, esplanade, essential, even, everyday, evident,
exhaustive, explicit, express, facile, familiar, farm belt,
farm country, farmland, featureless, finished, flat, flatland,
flattened, floor, flush, folksy, forthright, frank, frankhearted,
free, free and easy, free-speaking, free-spoken, free-tongued,
friendly, fruit belt, fundamental, garden, garden-variety, genuine,
glade, glaring, glib, graceful, gracile, gracious, graphic,
grass roots, grassland, grazing region, ground, guileless, haymish,
hearable, heart-to-heart, heath, hi-fi, high-fidelity, highlands,
homaloid, homaloidal, homelike, homely, homespun, homey, homish,
homogeneous, honest, horizontal, horizontal axis, horizontal fault,
horizontal line, horizontal parallax, horizontal plane,
horizontal projection, household, humble, humble-looking,
humble-visaged, humblest, humdrum, ill-favored, in focus,
indisputable, indivisible, indubitable, inelegant, informal,
ingenu, ingenuous, inglorious, innocent, innocuous, insipid,
intelligible, intensive, intimate, irreducible, irregular,
irretrievably, irrevocably, lean, least, ledge, legible, level,
level line, level plane, light, limpid, living space, llano, loose,
loud and clear, low, lowborn, lowbred, lowest, lowlands, lowliest,
lowly, lucid, luminous, manifest, marred, matter-of-fact, mead,
meadows and pastures, mean, mean sea level, mere, modest,
monolithic, moor, moorland, moors, mundane, muted, naive, natural,
neat, nonclerical, nondescript, nothing to it, noticeable,
observable, obvious, of a piece, offhand, offhanded, omnibus,
omnipresent, open, open country, open space, open-and-shut,
openhearted, ordinary, out-and-out, outback, outright, outspoken,
painless, palpable, pampas, parterre, pasture, patent, peaceful,
pedestrian, pellucid, perceivable, perceptible, perfect, perfectly,
perspicuous, pervasive, plain as day, plain-speaking, plain-spoken,
plains, plane, plateau, platform, plebeian, plumb, poetryless,
polished, poor, prairie, prairies, primal, primary, prominent,
pronounced, prosaic, prose, prosing, prosy, province, provinces,
pure, pure and simple, quite, radical, refined, regular, relaxed,
restrained, right, rolled, round, rude, rural district, rustic,
rustic region, savanna, sea level, sea of grass, seeable,
self-evident, self-explaining, self-explanatory, severe,
shabby-genteel, sheer, short, short on looks, simon-pure, simple,
simple as ABC, simple-speaking, simplehearted, simpleminded,
sincere, single, single-hearted, single-minded, small, smooth,
smoothed out, smoothened, snug, sober, sociable, soft, spare,
spartan, spoiled, squashed, squashed flat, staring, stark, steppe,
steppes, straight, straight-out, straightforward, sweeping, table,
tabloid, tabular, tangible, tasteful, teachable, terrace, terrain,
territory, terse, the country, the soil, the sticks, third-estate,
thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, tiresome, to be seen,
tobacco belt, total, translucent, transparent, transpicuous, trim,
trodden, trodden flat, trustful, trusting, tundra, ubiquitous,
uglified, ugly, ugly as hell, ugly as sin, unadorned,
unadulterated, unaesthetic, unaffected, unalluring, unambiguous,
unassuming, unattractive, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, unburdensome,
unceremonious, unchecked, uncluttered, uncomely, uncomplicated,
unconcealed, unconditional, unconfused, unconstrained,
unconventional, undecorated, understandable, undifferenced,
undifferentiated, undiluted, undisguised, undissembled,
undissembling, undistinguished, unelaborate, unembellished,
unenhanced, unequivocal, unfeigned, ungarnished, ungenteel,
unguarded, unhandsome, unidealistic, uniform, unimaginative,
unimpassioned, unimportant, universal, univocal, unlabored,
unlovely, unluxurious, unmistakable, unmitigated, unmixed,
unofficial, unornamented, unostentatious, unpleasing, unpoetic,
unpoetical, unpretending, unpretentious, unpretty, unqualified,
unrelievedly, unremarkable, unreserved, unrestrained, unrestricted,
unromantic, unsightly, unsophisticated, unstudied, unsuspicious,
unvarnished, unwary, uplands, utter, vapid, veld, veldt, veritable,
visible, vivid, vulgar, water level, well-defined, well-marked,
well-pronounced, well-resolved, wheat belt, wholesale,
wide-open spaces, wilderness, wold, woodland, woods and fields,
workaday, workday, yokeldom
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