Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLAT'ED, pp.

Covered or adorned with plate; armed with plate; beaten into plates.

PLAT'EN, n. [from its flatness.]

Among printers, the flat part of a press by which the impression is made.

PLATE'Y, a.

Like a plate; flat. – Gregory.

PLAT'FORM, n. [plat, flat, and form.]

1. The sketch of any thing horizontally delineated; the ichnography. – Sandys.
2. A place laid out after any model. – Pope.
3. In the military art, an elevation of earth or a floor of wood or stone, on which cannons are mounted to fire on an enemy. – Encyc.
4. In architecture, a row of beams or a piece of timber which supports the timber-work of a roof, and lying on the top of the wall. – Encyc. This in New England is called the plate.
5. A kind of terrace or broad smooth open walk on the top of a building, as in the oriental houses. – Encyc.
6. In ships, the orlop. [See Orlop.]
7. Any number of planks or other materials forming a floor for any purpose. – Mar. Dict.
8. A plan; a scheme; ground-work. – Bacon.
9. In some of the New England states, an ecclesiastical constitution, or a plan for the government of churches; as, the Cambridge or Saybrook platform.

PLATIC-ASPECT, n. [Platic aspect.]

In astrology, a ray cast from one planet to another, not exactly, but within the orbit of its own light. – Bailey.

PLAT'ING, n.

The art or operation of covering any thing with plate or with a metal, particularly of overlaying a baser metal with a thin plate of silver. The coating of silver is soddered to the metal with tin, or a mixture of three parts of silver with one of brass.

PLAT'ING, ppr.

Overlaying with plate or with a metal; beating into thin lamins.

PLA-TI-NIF'ER-OUS, a. [platinum and L. fero, to produce.]

Producing platinum; as, platiniferous sand. – Dict. Nat. Hist.

PLAT'I-NUM, n. [Sp. platina, from plata, silver.]

A metal discovered in 1711, in the mines of Choco in Peru, by Charles Wood, assay-master, Jamaica, nearly of the color of silver, but less bright, and the heaviest of the metals. Its specific gravity is to that of water as 20 to 1. It is harder than iron, undergoes no alteration in air, resists the action of acids and alkalies, is very ductile and capable of being rolled into thin plates. – Encyc. This metal has since been found in Brazil, also near Carthagena, in Antioquia in St. Domingo, and on the Uralian mountains. It was first called Platinum by Linnæus, and has been so called, by nearly all the chimists since his time.

PLAT'I-TUDE, n. [Fr.]

Flatness; dullness; insipidity.

PLA-TON'IC, a.

Pertaining to Plato the philosopher, or to his philosophy, his school or his opinions. Platonic love, is a pure spiritual affection subsisting between the sexes, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellencies; a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate. Platonic year, the great year, or a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes. This revolution, which is calculated by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 25,000 years. – Encyc.

PLA-TON'IC-AL-LY, adv.

After the manner of Plato. – Wotton.

PLA'TON-ISM, n.

The philosophy of Plato, consisting of three branches, theology, physics, and mathematics. Under theology is included moral philosophy. The foundation of Plato's theology is the opinion that there are two eternal, primary, independent and incorruptible principles or causes of all things, which are God, the maker of all things, and matter, from which all things are made. It was a fundamental maxim with him that from nothing, nothing can proceed. While therefore he held God to be the maker of the universe, he held matter, the substance of which the universe was made, to be eternal. – Enfield.

PLA'TO-NIST, or PLA'TO-NIZ-ER, n.

One that adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato. – Hammond.

PLA'TO-NIZE, v.i.

To adopt the opinions or philosophy of Plato. – Milner.

PLA'TO-NIZE, v.t.

To explain on the principles of the Platonic school, or to accommodate to those principles. – Enfield.

PLA'TO-NIZ-ED, pp.

Accommodated to the philosophy of Plato. – Enfield.

PLA'TO-NIZ-ING, ppr.

Adopting the principles of Plato; accommodating to the principles of the Platonic school. – Enfield.

PLAT-OON', n. [Fr. peloton, a ball of thread, a knot of men, from pelote, a ball; Sp. peloton. See Ball.]

A small square body of soldiers or musketeers, drawn out of a battalion of foot when they form a hollow square, to strengthen the angles; or a small body acting together, but separate from the main body; as, to fire by platoons.

PLAT'TER, n. [from plate.]

1. A large shallow dish for holding the provisions of a table. – Dryden.
2. One that plats or forms by weaving. [See Plat.]

PLAT'TER-FAC'ED, a.

Having a broad face.

PLAT'TING, ppr.

Weaving; forming by texture.

PLAT'Y-PUS, n.

Two quadrupeds of New Holland, now called Ornithorrhynchus paradoxus and O. fuscus. They are monotrematous edentate mammals, the body covered with hair, a bill like a duck, teeth planted in a kind of gums, webbed feet with a venomous spur on the hinder leg, connected with a reservoir of poison in the soles of the feet, which is supplied by glands situated by the side of the spine, just above the pelvis.

PLAUD'IT, n. [L. plaudo, to praise, said to be taken from plaudite, a demand of applause by players when they left the stage.]

Applause; praise bestowed. – Denham.

PLAUD'IT-O-RY, a.

Applauding, commending.