plate
/ˈpleɪ̯t/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms plates plating plated the Plate
- noun A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten. “I filled my plate from the bountiful table.”
- noun (uncountable) Such dishes collectively. “A valuable collection of silver plate was donated to the museum.”
- noun The contents of such a dish. “I ate a plate of beans.”
- noun A course at a meal. “The meat plate was particularly tasty.”
- noun (figuratively) An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities “With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.”
- noun A flat object of uniform thickness. “The most important and most expensive part of any solar cell is a silicon plate.”
- noun (especially Australia; metonymic, plural only) Vehicle license plates, registration plates. “He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.”
- noun A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.
- verb (transitive) To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal. “This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.”
- verb (cooking, photography, transitive) To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving. “After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.”
- verb (baseball, transitive) To score a run. “The single plated the runner from second base.”
- verb (transitive) To arm or defend with metal plates.
- verb (transitive) To beat into thin plates.
- verb (aviation, travel) To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of. “Tickets are normally plated on an itinerary's first international airline.”
- verb (philately, transitive) To categorize stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.
- verb (philately, transitive) To identify the printing plate used, particularly with early British stamps.
- noun Precious metal, especially silver.
- noun (obsolete) Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.
- noun (heraldry) A roundel of silver or argent.
- proper noun The River Plate.
Synonyms
rego plates home plate home base home plateful crustal plate photographic plate collection plate scale shell denture dental plate
Etymology
From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato.
(foot): Cockney rhyming slang, from "plates of meat" for "feet".
From Middle English platen, from Old English platian and Old French plater, both ultimately from Latin plata (see above).
From Middle English, partly from Anglo-Norman plate (“plate, bullion”) and partly from Latin plata (“silver”), from Vulgar Latin *platta (“metal plate”), from feminine of Latin *plattus (“flat”).
From Spanish plata (“silver”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate.
- noun Metallic armor composed of broad pieces.
- verb To cover or overlay with gold, silver, or other metals, either by a mechanical process, as hammering, or by a chemical process, as electrotyping.
- verb To cover or overlay with plates of metal; to arm with metal for defense.
Etymology [OF. plate a plate of metal, a cuirsas, F. plat a plate, a shallow vessel of silver, other metal, or earth, fr. plat flat, Gr. Place, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “plate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details