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Entry 15 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Plant

/plănt/ · IPA /plænt/
01 n. A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary motion, and having, when complete, a root, stem, and leaves…
  1. 1.
    A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary motion, and having, when complete, a root, stem, and leaves, though consisting sometimes only of a single leafy expansion, or a series of cellules, or even a single cellule.
  2. 2.
    A bush, or young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
  3. 3.
    The sole of the foot.[R.]
  4. 4.
    The whole machinery and apparatus employed in carrying on a trade or mechanical business; also, sometimes including real estate, and whatever represents investment of capital in the means of carrying on a business, but not including material worked upon or finished products; as, the plant of a foundry, a mill, or a railroad.(Com.)
  5. 5.
    A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick.[Slang]
    “It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey.” — Dickens.
  6. 6.
    An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.(Zool.) [Local, U.S.]
Phrases & compounds
Plant bug — any one of numerous hemipterous insects which injure the foliage of plants, as Lygus lineolaris, which damages wheat and trees.
Plant cutter — a South American passerine bird of the genus Phytotoma, family Phytotomidæ. It has a serrated bill with which it cuts off the young shoots and buds of plants, often doing much injury.
Plant louse — any small hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the families Aphidæ and Psyllidæ; an aphid.
02 v. t. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maize.
imp. & p. p. Planted; p. pr. & vb. n. Planting
  1. 1.
    To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maize.
  2. 2.
    To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree, or a vegetable with roots.
    “Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees.” — Deut. xvi. 21.
  3. 3.
    To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest.
  4. 4.
    To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
    “It engenders choler, planteth anger.” — Shak.
  5. 5.
    To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish; as, to plant a colony.
    “Planting of countries like planting of woods.” — Bacon.
  6. 6.
    To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen.
  7. 7.
    To set firmly; to fix; to set and direct, or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a standard in any place; to plant one's feet on solid ground; to plant one's fist in another's face.
  8. 8.
    To set up; to install; to instate.
    “We will plant some other in the throne.” — Shak.
03 v. i. To perform the act of planting.
  1. 1.
    To perform the act of planting.
    “I have planted; Apollos watered.” — 1 Cor. iii. 6.