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aucer. -- Plain chant (Mus.) Same as Plain song, below. -- Plain chart (Naut.), a chart laid down on Mercator's projection. -- Plain dealer. (a) One who practices plain dealing. (b) A simpleton. [Obs.] Shak. -- Plain dealing. See under Dealing. -- Plain molding (Join.), molding of which the surfaces are plain figu…

way, a road surface formed of planks. [U.S.] -- To walk the plank, to walk along a plank laid across the bulwark of a ship, until one overbalances it and falls into the sea; -- a method of disposing of captives practiced by pirates.

The course of plank laid horizontally over the timberheads of a vessel's frame.

A small piece or plot of ground laid out with some design, or for a special use; usually, a portion of flat, even ground. This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve. Milton. I keep smooth plat of fruitful ground. Tennyson.

A horizontal timber laid upon a wall, or upon corbels projecting from a wall, and supporting the ends of other timbers; also used specifically of the roof plate which supports the ends of the roof trusses or, in simple work, the feet of the rafters.

A place laid out after a model. [Obs.] lf the platform just reflects the order. Pope.

A thin coating of metal laid upon another metal.

A compress, or small flat tent of lint, laid over a wound, ulcer, or the like, to exclude air, retain dressings, or absorb the matter discharged.

A plantation laid out. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

roversy; the point of view from which any one proceeds to a discussion; also, a principle laid down as the basis of reasoning; a proposition; a thesis; as, to define one's position; to appear in a false position. Let not the proof of any position depend on the positions that follow, but always on those which go before.…

Definitely laid down; explicitly stated; clearly expressed; -- opposed to implied; as, a positive declaration or promise. Positive words, that he would not bear arms against King Edward's son. Bacon.

osecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts. Bouvier.

ry of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them, as, the presentment of a nuisance, a libel, or the like; also, an inquisition of office and indictment by a grand jury; an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand jury in an indictment, or the ac…

Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law. It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty. Glanvill.

The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. Spenser. Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke. I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.

The first coating of color, size, or the like, laid on canvas, or on a building, or other surface.

ther of a private concern; cognizance implying consent or concurrence. All the doors were laid open for his departure, not without the privity of the Prince of Orange. Swift.

food; any kind of eatables collected or stored; -- often in the plural. And of provisions laid in large, For man and beast. Milton.

persistent; it consists in a close analysis of the patient's mental history, stress being laid upon the dream life, and of treatment by means of suggestion. -- Psy*chan`a*lyt"ic (#), a. -- Psy`cha*nal"y*sist (#), n.

Mortar or the like, laid between the joists under the boards of a floor, or within a partition, to deaden sound; -- in the United States usually called deafening.