Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Plane   /pleɪn/   Listen
noun
Plane  n.  (Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus. Note: The Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a native of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental plane (Platanus occidentalis), which grows to a great height, is a native of North America, where it is popularly called sycamore, buttonwood, and buttonball, names also applied to the California species (Platanus racemosa).


Plane  n.  
1.
(Geom.) A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.
2.
(Astron.) An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.
3.
(Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.
4.
(Joinery) A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc.
Objective plane (Surv.), the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand.
Perspective plane. See Perspective.
Plane at infinity (Geom.), a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated.
Plane iron, the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane.
Plane of polarization. (Opt.) See Polarization.
Plane of projection.
(a)
The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; called also principal plane.
(b)
(Descriptive Geom.) One of the planes to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position in space.
Plane of refraction or Plane of reflection (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.


verb
Plane  v. t.  (past & past part. planed; pres. part. planing)  
1.
To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, to plane a plank.
2.
To efface or remove. "He planed away the names... written on his tables."
3.
Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. (R.) "What student came but that you planed her path."


Plane  v. i.  Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.


adjective
Plane  adj.  Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface. Note: In science, this word (instead of plain) is almost exclusively used to designate a flat or level surface.
Plane angle, the angle included between two straight lines in a plane.
Plane chart, Plane curve. See under Chart and Curve.
Plane figure, a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure.
Plane geometry, that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures.
Plane problem, a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only.
Plane sailing (Naut.), the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane.
Plane scale (Naut.), a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc.
Plane surveying, surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent.
Plane table, an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field.
Plane trigonometry, the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Plane" Quotes from Famous Books



... conditions. The expulsion of one evil has to be effected by the help of another; and the weather was bad with a vengeance. During the two weeks that followed October 20 there were only three or four days that offered any chance of working with the theodolite and plane-table. We managed to get a base-line measured, 1,000 metres long, and to lay out the greater part of the east side of the bay, as well as the most prominent points round the camp; but one had positively to snatch one's opportunities by ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen
... Mr. Plane's doubts were set at rest by John's confident manner, and he suppressed the caution which he had intended to give him. It made little difference, however, for John was headstrong, and would have been pretty certain to disregard ...
— Frank's Campaign - or the Farm and the Camp • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... them, a huge "old man" gorilla, brandished an immense stone which he hurled with vicious energy at the new arrivals. Luckily it fell short of the air-ship or it would have crashed through the plane covers and have seriously crippled, if not ruined, ...
— The Boy Aviators in Africa • Captain Wilbur Lawton
... later "L" Company supported in the nick of time by two platoons of "I" Company repulsed a savage counter-attack staged by the Red Guards, September 16th, on a morning that followed the capture of a crashing Red bombing plane in the evening and the midnight conflagration in "L" Company's fortified camp that might have been misinterpreted as an evacuation by the Bolo. In this engagement Lieut. Gordon B. Reese and his platoon of "I" Company marked themselves with distinction by charging the Reds as a ...
— The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki - Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 • Joel R. Moore
... human life." Differing from both, the Anti-Revolutionists assert, "Whosoever leaves the firm ground of God's Word, the Holy Scriptures, as the only true basis for public and private action, can have neither sound politics nor sound economics." The Roman Catholics also put religion on the first plane, but they are in the most difficult position of all. They are a minority, even a decreasing minority, and know perfectly well that they will never be a majority; so they recognize that in the first place they must try to be good Dutchmen, faithful, loyal citizens ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough


More quotes...


Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com