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Admitting of interpretation; capable of being interpreted or explained.

The power or explaining. [R.] Bacon.

One who or that which interprets, explains, or expounds; a translator; especially, a person who translates orally between two parties. We think most men's actions to be the interpreters of their thoughts. Locke.

Reciting in a musical prolonged tone; intonating, or singing of the opening phrase of a plain-chant, psalm, or canticle by a single voice, as of a priest. See Intone, v. t.

nds. With inundation wide the deluge reigns, Drowns the deep valleys, and o'erspreads the plains. Wilkie.

A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; a dolorous tirade; -- generally used satirically. He has prolonged his complaint into an endless jeremiad. Lamb.

glish character. W. Irving. -- John Doe (Law), the name formerly given to the fictitious plaintiff in an action of ejectment. Mozley & W. -- John Doree, John Dory. Etym: [John (or F. jaune yellow) + Doree, Dory.] (Zoöl.) An oval, compressed, European food fish (Zeus faber). Its color is yellow and olive, with golden,…

A joining of parties as plaintiffs or defendants in a suit.

A wood-working machine, for sawing, plaining, mortising, tenoning, grooving, etc.

rt In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. Milton.

Plaintive; -- a term applied to a mournful or pathetic movement or style. Moore.

Grief or sorrow expressed in complaints or cries; lamentation; a wailing; a moaning; a weeping. Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage. Milton.

Lar forget, Victorious by his benefit. Lovelace. The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint. Milton. Looking backward in vain toward their Lares and lands. Longfellow.

A plain sprinkled with trees or underbrush; a glade. [Obs.] In a laund upon an hill of flowers. Chaucer. Through this laund anon the deer will come. Shak.

ertain regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants, so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bhatr, L. frater, E. brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go, E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dha…

To cause to lie dead or dying. Brave Cæneus laid Ortygius on the plain, The victor Cæneus was by Turnus slain. Dryden.

To cease from; to desist from; to abstain from. Now leave complaining and begin your tea. Pope.

Capable of being read or deciphered; distinct to the eye; plain; - - used of writing or printing; as, a fair, legible manuscript. The stone with moss and lichens so overspread, Nothing is legible but the name alone. Longfellow.

Spirits or ghosts of the departed; specters. The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint. Milton.

Spare, meager; plain; somber; unostentatious; not abundant or showy. "Lenten entertainment." " Lenten answer." Shak. " Lenten suit." Beau. & Fl. Lenten color, black or violet. F. G. Lee.