Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLOW'-LAND, n.

1. Land that is plowed, or suitable for tillage.
2. Tillage ground.

PLOW'MAN, n.

1. One that plows or holds a plow. At last the robber binds the plowman and carries him off with the oxen. – Spelman.
2. A cultivator of grain; a husbandman. – Temple.
3. A rustic; a countryman; a hardy laborer. – Shak. Arbuthnot.

PLOW'-MON-DAY, n.

The Monday after Twelfth-day. – Tusser.

PLOW'SHARE, n. [See Shear.]

The part of a plow which cuts the ground at the bottom of the furrow, and raises the slice to the mold-board, which turns it over.

PLUCK, n.

The heart, liver and lights of an animal.

PLUCK, v.t. [Sax. pluccian, which seems to be the same word, with a prefix, as lyccan or alucan, aluccan, to pull off or out; G. pflücken; D. plukken; Dan. plukker; Sw. plocka; Fr. eplucher; W. pliciaw, to pluck, to peel; plig, a peel.]

1. To pull with sudden force or effort, or to pull off, out or from, with a twitch. Thus we say, to pluck feathers from a fowl; to pluck hair or wool from a skin; to pluck grapes or other fruit. They pluck the fatherless from the breast. – Job xxiv.
2. To strip by plucking; as, to pluck a fowl. They that pass by do pluck her. – Ps. lxxx. The sense of this verb is modified by particles. To pluck away, to pull away, or to separate by pulling; to tear away. He shall pluck away his crop with his feathers. – Lev. i. To pluck down, to pull down; to demolish; or to reduce to a lower state. – Shak. To pluck off, is to pull or tear off; as, to pluck off the skin. – Mic. iii. To pluck on, to pull or draw on. [Obs.] – Shak. To pluck up, to tear up by the roots or from the foundation; to eradicate; to exterminate; to destroy; as, to pluck up a plant; to pluck up a nation. – Jer. xii. To pluck out, to draw out suddenly, or to tear out; as, to pluck out the eyes; to pluck out the hand from the bosom. – Ps. lxxiv. To pluck up, to resume courage; properly, to pluck up the heart. [Not elegant.]

PLUCK'ED, pp.

Pulled off; stripped of feathers or hair.

PLUCK'ER, n.

One that plucks. – Mortimer.

PLUCK'ING, ppr.

Pulling off; stripping.

PLUG, n. [D. plug; Dan. plyg; Sw. pligg; G. pflock; W. ploc, a block; plociaw, to block, to plug. It seems to be the same word radically as block, W. lloc.]

A stopple; any piece of pointed wood or other substance used to stop a hole, but larger than a peg or spile. – Boyle. Swift. Hawse-plug, in marine affairs, a plug to stop a hawse-hole. Shot-plug, a plug to stop a breach made by a cannon-ball in the side of a ship. – Mar. Dict.

PLUG, v.t.

To stop with a plug; to make tight by stopping a hole.

PLUG'GING, n.

Act of stopping with a plug.

PLUG'GING, ppr.

Stopping with a plug.

PLUM, n. [Sax. plume; G. pflaume; Dan. blomme; Sw. plommon; Corn. pluman; Ir. pluma.]

1. The fruit of a tree belonging to the genus Prunus. The fruit is a drupe, containing a nut or stone with prominent sutures and inclosing a kernel. The varieties of the plum are numerous and well known.
2. A grape dried in the sun; a raisin.
3. The sum of £100,000 sterling. – London.
4. A kind of play. – Ainsworth. [Dr. Johnson remarks that this word is often written improperly plumb. This is true, not only of this word, but of all words in which b follows m, as in thumb, dumb, &c.]

PLU'MAGE, n. [Fr. from plume.]

The feathers that cover a fowl. Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove. – Pope.

PLUMB, a.

Perpendicular, that is, standing according to a plumb-line. The post of the house or the wall is plumb. [This is the common language of our mechanics.]

PLUMB, adv.

1. In a perpendicular direction; in a line perpendicular to the plane of the horizon. The wall stands plumb. Plumb down he falls. – Milton.
2. Directly; suddenly; at once; as a falling mass; usually pronounced plump. He fell plumb into the water.

PLUMB, n. [plum; Fr. plomb; Sp. plomo; It. piombo; W. plum; L. plumbum, lead; probably a clump or lump.]

A mass of lead attached to a line, and used to ascertain a perpendicular position of buildings and the like. But the word as a noun is seldom used, except in composition. [See Plumb-line.]

PLUMB, v.t.

1. To adjust by a plumb-line; to set in a perpendicular direction; as, to plumb a building or a wall.
2. [W. plymiaw.] To sound with a plummet, as the depth of water. [Little used.] – Swift.

PLUM-BA'GIN, n.

A crystalizable substance extracted from the root of the Plumbago.

PLUM-BAG'IN-OUS, a.

Resembling plumbago; consisting of plumbago, or partaking of its properties.

PLUM-BA'GO, n. [L.]

A mineral consisting of carbon, usually, but not necessarily, with a little iron; with the exception of diamond, it is one of the purest forms of carbon ever found in nature. It is used for pencils, &c.

PLUM'BE-AN, or PLUM'BE-OUS, a.

1. Consisting of lead; resembling lead. – Ellis.
2. Dull; heavy; stupid. – J. P. Smith.

PLUMB'ED, pp. [plum'med.]

Adjusted by a plumb-line.

PLUMB'ER, n. [plum'mer.]

One who works in lead.