英文字典中文字典Word104.com

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Plant \Plant\, n. [AS. plante, L. planta.]
1. A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without
feeling and voluntary motion, and having, when complete, a
root, stem, and leaves, though consisting sometimes only
of a single leafy expansion, or a series of cellules, or
even a single cellule.
[1913 Webster]

Note: Plants are divided by their structure and methods of
reproduction into two series, ph[ae]nogamous or
flowering plants, which have true flowers and seeds,
and cryptogamous or flowerless plants, which have no
flowers, and reproduce by minute one-celled spores. In
both series are minute and simple forms and others of
great size and complexity.
[1913 Webster] As to their mode of nutrition, plants
may be considered as self-supporting and dependent.
Self-supporting plants always contain chlorophyll, and
subsist on air and moisture and the matter dissolved in
moisture, and as a general rule they excrete oxygen,
and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and
form the material for their tissues. Dependent plants
comprise all fungi and many flowering plants of a
parasitic or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they have
no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter
already organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds
already existing, and not excreting oxygen. But there
are plants which are partly dependent and partly
self-supporting.
[1913 Webster] The movements of climbing plants, of
some insectivorous plants, of leaves, stamens, or
pistils in certain plants, and the ciliary motion of
zoospores, etc., may be considered a kind of voluntary
motion.
[1913 Webster]

2. A bush, or young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
"A plant of stubborn oak." --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]

3. The sole of the foot. [R.] "Knotty legs and plants of
clay." --B. Jonson.
[1913 Webster]

4. (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.
[1913 Webster]

5. A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick. [Slang]
[1913 Webster]

It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey.
--Dickens.
[1913 Webster]

6. (Zool.)
(a) An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from
one of natural growth.
(b) A young oyster suitable for transplanting. [Local,
U.S.]
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]

{Plant bug} (Zool.), any one of numerous hemipterous insects
which injure the foliage of plants, as {Lygus lineolaris},
which damages wheat and trees.

{Plant cutter} (Zool.), a South American passerine bird of
the genus {Phytotoma}, family {Phytotomid[ae]}. It has a
serrated bill with which it cuts off the young shoots and
buds of plants, often doing much injury.

{Plant louse} (Zool.), any small hemipterous insect which
infests plants, especially those of the families
{Aphid[ae]} and {Psyllid[ae]}; an aphid.
[1913 Webster]


Plant \Plant\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Planted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Planting}.] [AS. plantian, L. plantare. See {Plant}, n.]
1. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to
plant maize.
[1913 Webster]

2. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree, or a
vegetable with roots.
[1913 Webster]

Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees.
--Deut. xvi.
21.
[1913 Webster]

3. To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a
garden, an orchard, or a forest.
[1913 Webster]

4. To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
[1913 Webster]

It engenders choler, planteth anger. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

5. To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to
settle; to establish; as, to plant a colony.
[1913 Webster]

Planting of countries like planting of woods.
--Bacon.
[1913 Webster]

6. To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as,
to plant Christianity among the heathen.
[1913 Webster]

7. 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.
[1913 Webster]

8. To set up; to install; to instate.
[1913 Webster]

We will plant some other in the throne. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]


Plant \Plant\, v. i.
To perform the act of planting.
[1913 Webster]

I have planted; Apollos watered. --1 Cor. iii.
6.
[1913 Webster]