Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLEX'US, n. [L.]

Any union of vessels, nerves or fibers, in the form of net-work. – Coxe.

PLI-A-BIL'I-TY, n. [from pliable.]

The quality of bending or yielding to pressure or force without rupture; flexibility; pliableness.

PLI'A-BLE, a. [Fr. from plier, to bend, to fold; L. plico, Gr. πλεκω, W. plygu, It. piegare, to fold; pieghevole, pliable.]

1. Easy to be bent; that readily yields to pressure without rupture; flexible; as, willow is a pliable plant.
2. Flexible in disposition; readily yielding to moral influence, arguments, persuasion or discipline; as, a pliable youth.

PLI'A-BLE-NESS, n.

Flexibility; the quality of yielding to force or to moral influence; pliability; as, the pliableness of a plant or of the disposition. – Hammond.

PLI'AN-CY, n. [from pliant.]

1. Easiness to be bent; in a physical sense; as, the pliancy of a rod, of cordage, or of limbs. – Addison.
2. Readiness to yield to moral influence; as, pliancy of temper.

PLI'ANT, a. [Fr.]

1. That may be easily bent; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; flexile; lithe; limber; as, a pliant thread. – Spectator.
2. That may be easily formed or molded to a different shape; as, pliant wax.
3. Easily yielding to moral influence; easy to be persuaded; ductile. The will was then more ductile and pliant to right reason. – South.

PLI'ANT-LY, adv.

Yieldingly; flexibly.

PLI'ANT-NESS, n.

Flexibility. – Bacon.

PLI'CA, n. [L. a fold.]

Trichosis plica is a disease of the hair, peculiar to Poland and the neighboring countries. In this disease, the hair of the head is vascularly thickened, matted or harled by means of a glutinous fluid secreted from its root. It sometimes, but rarely, affects the beard, the hair of the pudenda, and of the rest of the surface of the body. It seems to prevail in Poland as an endemic disease.

PLI'CATE, or PLI'CA-TED, a. [L. plicatus, plico, to fold.]

Plaited; folded like a fan; as, a plicate leaf. – Lee. Martyn.

PLI-CA'TION, n. [from L. plico.]

A folding or fold.

PLIC'A-TURE, n. [L. plicatura; plico, to fold.]

A fold; a doubling.

PLI'ED, pp.

Applied to closely; employed diligently; urged. [See Ply.]

PLI'ERS, n. [plur. Fr. plier, to fold. See Ply.]

An instrument by which any small thing is seized and bent. – Moxon.

PLI'FORM, a. [Fr. pli, a fold, and form.]

In the form of a fold or doubling. – Pennant.

PLIGHT, n. [plite; L. plicatus, implicatus, implicitus.]

1. Literally, a state of being involved, hence, perplexity, distress, or a distressed state or condition; as, a miserable plight. But the word by itself does not ordinarily imply distress. Hence,
2. Condition; state; and sometimes good case; as, to keep cattle in plight. In most cases, this word is now accompanied with an adjective which determines its signification; as, bad plight, miserable or wretched plight; good plight.
3. Pledge; gage. The Lord, whose hand must take my plight. – Shak.
4. A fold, [L. plica;] a double; a plait. All in a silken Camus, lily white, / Purified upon with many a folded plight. [Obs.] – Spenser.
5. A garment. [Not used.] – Chapman.

PLIGHT, v.t. [plite; Sax. plihtan, to pledge, and to expose to danger or rather perhaps to perplexity; Sw. beplichta, to bind; D. pligt, duty, mortgage; G. pflicht, duty, pledge; Dan. pligt, duty, obligation; pligtig, bound, obliged; Sw. plicht. This seems to be the Teutonic form of the Celtic pledge, Fr. pleige, pleiger. L. plico, Gr. πλεκω, It. piegare, Sp. plegar, Fr. plier, Arm. plega, W. plygu, to fold; Sp. pleyto, a covenant or contract; and the G. flechten, to braid, coinciding with the L. flecto, to bend, appears to be of the same family. If the elements are Lg, as I suspect, pledge and plight are formed on the root of lay, Arm. lacqaat. To pledge or plight is to lay down, throw down, set or deposit. Plight may however be more directly from the root of L. ligo, but this is of the same family. See Alloy and Ply.]

1. To pledge; to give as security for the performance of some act; but never applied to property or goods. We say, he plighted his hand, his faith, his vows, his honor, his truth or troth. Pledge is applied to property as well as to word, faith, truth, honor, &c. To plight faith is, as it were, to deposit it in pledge for the performance of an act, on the non-performance of which, the pledge is forfeited.
2. To weave; to braid. – Spenser. Milton. [This is the primary sense of the word, L. plico, but now obsolete.]

PLIGHT'ED, pp. [pli'ted.]

Pledged.

PLIGHT'ER, n. [pli'ter.]

One that pledges; that which plights.

PLIGHT'ING, ppr. [pli'ting]

Pledging.

PLIM, v.i.

To swell. [Not in use.] – Grose.

PLINTH, n. [Gr. πλινθος, a brick or tile; L. plinthus.]

In architecture, a flat square member in form of a brick, which serves as the foundation of a column; being the flat square table under the molding of the base and pedestal, at the bottom of the order. Vitruvius gives the name to the abacus or upper part of the Tuscan order, from its resemblance to the plinth. Plinth of a statue, is a base, flat, round or square. – Encyc. Plinth of a wall, two or three rows of bricks advanced from the wall in form of a platband; and in general, any flat high molding that serves in a front wall to mark the floors, to sustain the eaves of a wall or the larmier of a chimney. – Encyc.

PLI'O-CENE, a. [Gr. πλειων, more.]

In geology, more new, or recent. – Mantell.

PLI'O-CENE, n. [Gr. πλειων and καινος.]

More recent. [A geological term.] [1841 Addenda only.]

PLOD, v.i. [D. plots, dull, heavy. Qu.]

1. To travel or work slowly or with steady laborious diligence. A plodding diligence brings us sooner to our journey's end, than a fluttering way of advancing by starts. – L'Estrange. Some stupid, plodding, money-loving wight. – Young.
2. To study heavily with steady diligence. – Shak. Swift.
3. To toil; to drudge.