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One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow; as, pioneers of civilization; pioneers of reform.

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.

Consisting of strands twisted together in the ordinary way; as, a plain-laid rope. See Illust. of Cordage.

A method; a way of procedure; a custom. The simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can. Wordsworth. Body plan, Floor plan, etc. See under Body, Floor, etc.

es of a party 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 pirate…

leasure, idle amusement. [Obs.] Bacon. -- A play upon words, the use of a word in such a way as to be capable of double meaning; punning. -- Play of colors, prismatic variation of colors. -- To bring into play, To come into play, to bring or come into use or exercise. -- To hold in play, to keep occupied or employe…

r or against a thing; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; to speak by way of persuasion; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead with a judge or with a father. O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! Job xvi. 21.

A figure in which a word is separated or repeated by way of emphasis, so as not only to signify the individual thing denoted by it, but also its peculiar attribute or quality; as, "His wife's a wife indeed." Bailey.

To walk on slowly or heavily. The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. Gray.

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

t Octavia plow thy visage up With her prepared nails. Shak. With speed we plow the watery way. Pope.

To strip of, or as of, feathers; as, to pluck a fowl. They which pass by the way do pluck her. Ps. lxxx.

, the place where to sink an air shaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to find which way the lode inclines.

o yield. [Obs.] It would rather burst atwo than plye. Chaucer. The willow plied, and gave way to the gust. L'Estrange.

To search; to feel one's way, as in the dark; to grope; as, to poke about. A man must have poked into Latin and Greek. Prior.

art or practice of combining different colors, especially brilliant ones, in an artistic way.

into semifluid metal, an intaglio matrix is produced: and from this matrix, in a similar way, a polytype in relief is obtained. Hansard.

One of certain upright timbers on the bilge ways, used to support a vessel in launching. Totten.

A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing. Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone. Milton. From out the fiery portal of the east. Shak.

y itself, though not actually cut off or separated from the whole. These are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him! Job xxvi. 14. Portions and parcels of the dreadful past. Tennyson.