Search the Dictionary

A definite portion or quantity, as of goods or work; as, a piece of broadcloth; a piece of wall paper.

rdinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost. Pile bridge, a bridge of which the roadway is supported on piles. -- Pile cap, a beam resting upon and connecting the heads of piles. -- Pile driver, or Pile engine, an apparatus for driving down piles, co…

Having the stigma visible at the throad of a gamopetalous corolla, while the stamens are concealed in the tube; -- said of dimorphous flowers. The opposite of Ant: thrum-eyed.

To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch. See Pinch, n., 4.

Tabular parenchyma, a form of cellular tissue in which the cells are broad and flat, as in some kinds of epidermis.

A kind of oil gas extensively used for lighting railroad cars, which carry it in compressed form.

A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances.

A dynamometer for ascertaining the power required to draw carriages over roads.

To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway. Knight.

A broad way in a city; an open space; an area; a court or short part of a street open only at one end. "Hangman boys in the market place." Shak.

Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American plains, or prairies. Descending fro the mountain into playn. Chaucer. Him the Ammonite Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. Milton.…

A suborder of Neuroptera, including those that have broad, flat wings, as the ant-lion, lacewing, etc. Called also Planipennes.

A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. See Board.

g material worked upon or finished products; as, the plant of a foundry, a mill, or a railroad.

Any plant of the genus Plantago, but especially the P. major, a low herb with broad spreading radical leaves, and slender spikes of minute flowers. It is a native of Europe, but now found near the abode of civilized man in nearly all parts of the world. Indian plantain. (Bot.) See under Indian. -- Mud plantain, a home…

The flat or broad side of a sword. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer.

Metallic armor composed of broad pieces. Mangled . . . through plate and mail. Milton.

A flat surface; especially, a broad, level, elevated area of land; a table-land.

Having a broad, flat face.

A combining form from Gr. platy`s broad, wide, flat; as, platypus, platycephalous.