Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLACE, n. [Fr. id.; Sp. plaza; Port. praça; It. piazza, for plazza; Arm. plaçz; D. plaats; G. platz; Sw. plats; Dan. plads. Words of this signification have for their radical sense, to lay.]

1. A particular portion of space of indefinite extent, occupied or intended to be occupied by any person or thing, and considered as the space where a person or thing does or may rest or has rested, as distinct from space in general. Look from the place where thou art. – Gen. xiii. The place where thou standest is holy ground. – Exod. iii. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours. – Deut. xi. David's place was empty. – 1 Sam. xx.
2. Any portion of space, as distinct from space in general. Enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place. – Esth. iv.
3. Local existence. From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. – Rev. xx.
4. Separate room or apartment. His catalogue had an especial plate for sequestered divines. – Fell.
5. Seat; residence; mansion. The Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. – John xi.
6. A portion or passage of writing or of a book. The place of the Scripture which he read was this. – Acts viii.
7. Point or degree in order of proceeding; as, in the first place; in the second place; in the last place. Hence,
8. Rank; order of priority, dignity or importance. He holds the first place in society, or in the affections of the people.
9. Office; employment; official station. The man has a place under the government. Do you your office, or give up your place. – Shak.
10. Ground; room. There is no place of doubting but that it is the very same. – Hammond.
11. Station in life; calling; occupation; condition. All, in their several places, perform their duty.
12. A city; a town; a village. In what place does he reside? He arrived at this place in the mail coach. – Gen. xviii.
13. In military affairs, a fortified town or post; a fortress; a fort; as, a strong place; a place easily defended. The place was taken by assault.
14. A country; a kingdom. England is the place of his birth.
15. Space in general. But she all places within herself confines. – Davies.
16. Room; stead; with the sense of substitution. And Joseph said to them, Fear not; for am I in the place of God. – Gen. 1.
17. Room; kind reception. My word hath no place in you. – John viii.
18. The place of the moon, in astronomy, is the part of its orbit where it is found at any given time. The place of the sun or a star, is the sign and degree of the zodiac, in which it is at any given time, or the degree of the ecliptic, reckoning from the beginning of Aries, which the star's circle of longitude cuts, and therefore coincides with the longitude of the sun or star. – Encyc. To take place, to come; to happen; come into actual existence or operation; as when we say, this or that event will or will not take place. The perfect exemption of man from calamity can never take place in this state of existence. #2. To take the precedence or priority. – Addison. Locke. To take the place, but sometimes to take place, omitting the article, is to occupy the place or station of another. To have place, to have a station, room or seat. Such desires can have no place in a good heart. #2. To have actual existence. To give place, to make room or way. Give place to your superiors. #2. To give room; to give advantage; to yield to the influence of; to listen to. Neither give place to the devil. – Eph. iv. #3. To give way; to yield to and suffer to pass away. High place, in Scripture, a mount on which sacrifices were offered.

PLACE, v.t. [Fr. placer.]

1. To put or set in a particular part of space, or in a particular part of the earth, or in something on its surface; to locate: as, to place a house by the side of a stream; to place a book on the shelf; to place a body of cavalry on each flank of an army.
2. To appoint, set, induct or establish in an office. Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, &c. – Exod. xviii. It is a high moral duty of sovereigns and supreme magistrates and councils, to place in office men of unquestionable virtue and talents. – Anon.
3. To put or set in any particular rank, state or condition. Some men are placed in a condition of rank and opulence, others are placed in low or narrow circumstances; but in whatever sphere men are placed, contentment will insure to them a large portion of happiness.
4. To set; to fix; as, to place one's affections on an object; to place confidence in a friend.
5. To put; to invest; as, to place money in the funds or in a bank.
6. To put out at interest; to lend; as, to place money in good hands or in good security.

PLAC'ED, pp.

Set; fixed; located; established.

PLACE'MAN, n.

One that has an office under a government.

PLA-CEN'TA, n. [L.; probably from the root of D. plakken, Fr. plaquer, to stick or clap together.]

1. In anatomy, the substance that connects the ovum to the womb, a soft roundish mass or cake by which the principal connection is maintained between the parent and the fetus. – Coxe. Quincy.
2. The part of a plant or fruit to which the seeds are attached. – Coxe. Parr.

PLA-CEN'TAL, a.

Pertaining to the placenta. – Waterhouse.

PLA-CEN-TA'TION, n.

In botany, the disposition of the cotyledons or lobes in the vegetation or germination of seeds. – Martyn.

PLA-CEN-TIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. placenta and fero.]

In botany, bearing or producing a placenta. Lindley.

PLA'CER, n.

One who places, locates or sets. – Spenser.

PLAC'ID, a. [L. placidus, from placo, to appease.]

1. Gentle; quiet; undisturbed; equable; as, a placid motion of the spirits. – Bacon.
2. Serene; mild; unruffled; indicating peace of mind; as, a placid countenance or smile.
3. Calm; tranquil; serene; not stormy; as, a placid sky.
4. Calm; quiet; unruffled; as, a placid stream.

PLAC'ID-LY, adv.

Mildly; calmly; quietly; without disturbance or passion.

PLAC'ID-NESS, n.

1. Calmness; quiet; tranquillity; unruffled state.
2. Mildness; gentleness; sweetness of disposition. – Chandler.

PLAC'ING, ppr.

Setting; fixing; establishing.

PLAC'IT, n. [L. placitum, that which pleases, a decree, from placeo, to please.]

A decree or determination. [Not in use.] – Glanville.

PLAC'I-TO-RY, a.

Relating to pleas or pleading in courts of law. – Clayton.

PLACK'ET, n. [from the Fr. plaquer, to clap on. See Placard.]

A petticoat. If this is the sense of the word in Shakspeare, it is derivative. The word signifies the opening of the garment; but it is nearly or wholly obsolete.

PLA'GAL, a. [Gr. πλαγιος, oblique.]

In music, plagal melodies are such as have their principal notes lying between the fifth of the key and its octave or twelfth. – Brande.

PLA'GI-A-RISM, n. [from plagiary.]

The act of purloining another man's literary works, or introducing passages from another man's writings and putting them off as one's own; literary theft. – Swift.

PLA'GI-A-RIST, n.

One that purloins the writings of another and puts them off as his own.

PLA'GI-A-RIZE, v.t.

To steal or purloin from the writings of another.

PLA'GI-A-RIZ-ED, pp.

Stolen from the writings of another.

PLA'GI-A-RIZ-ING, ppr.

Purloining from the writings of another.

PLA'GI-A-RY, a.

1. Stealing men; kidnapping. [Not used.] – Brown.
2. Practicing literary theft. – Hall.

PLA'GI-A-RY, n. [L. plagium, a kidnapping, probably from plagæ, nets, toil, that which is layed or spread, from the root of Eng. lay. The L. plaga, a stroke, is the same word differently applied, a laying on.]

1. A thief in literature; one that purloins another's writings and offers them to the public as his own. – South. Dryden.
2. The crime of literary theft. [Not used.] – Brown.

PLAGUE, n. [plāg; Sp. plaga or llaga, a wound, a plague; It. piaga for plaga; G. and Dan. plage; Sw. plåga; W. pla, plague; llac, a slap; llaciaw, to strike, to lick, to cudgel; Ir. plaig; L. plaga, a stroke, Gr. πληγη. See Lick and Lay. The primary sense is a stroke or striking. So afflict is from the root of flog, and probably of the same family as plague.]

1. Any thing troublesome or vexations; but in this sense, applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by Divine Providence. The application of the word to the latter, would now be irreverent and reproachful.
2. A pestilential disease; an acute, malignant febrile disease that often prevails in Egypt, Syria and Turkey, and has at times prevailed in the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality.
3. A state of misery. – Ps. xxxviii.
4. Any great natural evil or calamity; as, the ten plagues of Egypt.