GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 6 definitions

1.       
   aeroplane aëroplane , n. [aëro- + plane.] (Aëronautics)
   A light rigid plane used in aërial navigation to oppose sudden upward or downward movement in the air, as in gliding machines; specif., such a plane slightly inclined and driven forward as a lifting device in some flying machines. Also called airfoil.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   Hence: A heavier-than-air flying machine using such a device to provide lift; an airplane. In a modern aeroplane, the airfoils are called the wings, and most of the lift is derived from these surfaces. In contrast to helicopters, the wings are fixed to the passenger compartment (airframe) and do not move relative to the frame; thus such a machine is called a fixed-wing aircraft. These machines are called monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, or quadruplanes, according to the number of main supporting planes (wings) used in their construction. After 1940 few planes with more than one airfoil were constructed, and these are used by hobbyists or for special purposes. Being heavier than air they depend for their levitation on motion imparted by the thrust from either propellers driven by an engine, or, in a jet plane, by the reaction from a high-velocity stream of gases expelled rearward from a jet engine. They start from the ground by a run on small wheels or runners, and are guided by a steering apparatus consisting of horizontal and vertical movable planes, which usually form part of the wings or tail. There are many varieties of form and construction, which in some cases are known by the names of their inventors. In U.S., an aeroplane is usually called an airplane or plane.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
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2.       
   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
   ☞ 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
   
         
       

3.       
   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
   ☞ 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
   
         
       

4.       
   Plane, n. [F. plane, L. plana. See Plane, v. & a.]
   (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
   (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
   (Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.
   1913 Webster
   (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 aperture 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
   
         
       

5.       
   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.]
   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
   To efface or remove.
   1913 Webster
   He planed away the names . . . written on his tables.
   Chaucer.
   
   1913 Webster
   Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. [R.]
   1913 Webster
   What student came but that you planed her path.
   Tennyson.
   
   1913 Webster
   
         
       

6.       
   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.