'Plane' definitions:

Definition of 'plane'

(from WordNet)
adjective
Having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another; "a flat desk"; "acres of level farmland"; "a plane surface"; "skirts sewn with fine flat seams" [syn: flat, level, plane]
noun
An aircraft that has a fixed wing and is powered by propellers or jets; "the flight was delayed due to trouble with the airplane" [syn: airplane, aeroplane, plane]
noun
(mathematics) an unbounded two-dimensional shape; "we will refer to the plane of the graph as the X-Y plane"; "any line joining two points on a plane lies wholly on that plane" [syn: plane, sheet]
noun
A level of existence or development; "he lived on a worldly plane"
noun
A power tool for smoothing or shaping wood [syn: plane, planer, planing machine]
noun
A carpenter's hand tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing or shaping wood; "the cabinetmaker used a plane for the finish work" [syn: plane, carpenter's plane, woodworking plane]
verb
Cut or remove with or as if with a plane; "The machine shaved off fine layers from the piece of wood" [syn: plane, shave]
verb
Travel on the surface of water [syn: plane, skim]
verb
Make even or smooth, with or as with a carpenter's plane; "plane the top of the door"

Definition of 'Plane'

From: GCIDE
  • Plane \Plane\, n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. ?, fr. ? broad; -- so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form. See Place, and cf. Platane, Plantain the tree.] (Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus. [1913 Webster]
  • 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). [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Plane'

From: GCIDE
  • Plane \Plane\, n. [F. plane, L. plana. See Plane, v. & a.]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Plane'

From: GCIDE
  • Plane \Plane\, a. [L. planus: cf. F. plan. See Plan, a.] Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: In science, this word (instead of plain) is almost exclusively used to designate a flat or level surface. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Plane'

From: GCIDE
  • Plane \Plane\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Planed; p. pr. & vb. n. Planing.] [Cf. F. planer, L. planare, fr. planus. See Plane, a., Plain, a., and cf. Planish.]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To efface or remove. [1913 Webster]
  • He planed away the names . . . written on his tables. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. [R.] [1913 Webster]
  • What student came but that you planed her path. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Plane'

From: GCIDE
  • Plane \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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Synonyms of 'plane'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Plane'