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The mensuration of plane surfaces; -- distinguished from stereometry, or the mensuration of volumes.

od, especially boards, containing usually a rapidly revolving cutter, which chips off the surface in small shavings as the piece to be planed is passed under it by feeding apparatus.

To make smooth or plane, as a metallic surface; to condense, toughen, and polish by light blows with a hammer.

y or cause; as, a plank in the national platform. [Cant] Plank road, or Plank 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.…

All the animals and plants, taken collectively, which live at or near the surface of salt or fresh waters. --Plank*ton"ic (#), a.

Having a level horizontal surface or position. Lee.

An instrument for gauging or testing a plane surface. See Surface gauge, under Surface.

The art or process of producing or gauging a plane surface.

ms of a higher form. -- Plastic exudation (Med.), an exudation thrown out upon a wounded surface and constituting the material of repair by which the process of healing is effected. -- Plastic foods. (Physiol.) See the second Note under Food. -- Plastic force. (Physiol.) See under Force. -- Plastic operation, an op…

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

Any flat or horizontal surface; especially, one that is raised above some particular level, as a framework of timber or boards horizontally joined so as to form a roof, or a raised floor, or portion of a floor; a landing; a dais; a stage, for speakers, performers, or workmen; a standing place.

The smooth serous membrane which closely covers the lungs and the adjacent surfaces of the thorax; the pleural membrane.

pleural and peritoneal membranes, or the membrane lining the body cavity and covering the surface of the inclosed viscera; the peritoneum; -- used especially in the case of those animals in which the body cavity is not divided.

To fall, drop, or move in any way, with a sudden splash or slap, as on the surface of water.

gneous rocks, supposed to have consolidated from a melted state at a great depth from the surface. Cf. Intrusive rocks, under Intrusive. -- Plutonic theory. (Geol.) See Plutonism.

A pustule raised on the surface of the body in variolous and vaccine diseases. Of pokkes and of scab every sore. Chaucer.

ints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface.

The act or process of measuring, at the various distances from the surface of a block of marble, the surface of a future piece of statuary; also, a process used in cutting the statue from the artist's model.

.] Poker picture, a picture formed in imitation of bisterwashed drawings, by singeing the surface of wood with a heated poker or other iron. Fairholt.

ly of a heavenly body from the north pole of the heavens. -- Polar equation of a line or surface, an equation which expresses the relation between the polar coördinates of every point of the line or surface. -- Polar forces (Physics), forces that are developed and act in pairs, with opposite tendencies or properties…