Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Plane?

\Plane\, v. i. Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.
\Plane\, n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. ?, fr. ? broad; -- so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form. See {Place}, and cf. {Platane}, {Plantain} the tree.] (Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus. Note: The Oriental plane ({Platanus orientalis}) is a native of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental plane ({Platanus occidentalis}), which grows to a great height, is a native of North America, where it is popularly called {sycamore}, {buttonwood}, and {buttonball}, names also applied to the California species ({Platanus racemosa}).
\Plane\, a. [L. planus: cf. F. plan. See {Plan}, a.] Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface. Note: In science, this word (instead of plain) is almost exclusively used to designate a flat or level surface. {Plane angle}, the angle included between two straight lines in a plane. {Plane chart}, {Plane curve}. See under {Chart} and {Curve}. {Plane figure}, a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure. {Plane geometry}, that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures. {Plane problem}, a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only. {Plane sailing} (Naut.), the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane. {Plane scale} (Naut.), a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc. {Plane surveying}, surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent. {Plane table}, an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field. {Plane trigonometry}, the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles.
\Plane\, n. [F. plane, L. plana. See {Plane}, v. & a.] 1. (Geom.) A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature. 2. (Astron.) An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator. 3. (Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate. 4. (Joinery) A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc. {Objective plane} (Surv.), the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand. {Perspective plane}. See {Perspective}. {Plane at infinity} (Geom.), a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated. {Plane iron}, the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane. {Plane of polarization}. (Opt.) See {Polarization}. {Plane of projection}. (a) The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; -- called also principal plane. (b) (Descriptive Geom.) One of the planes to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position in space. {Plane of refraction} or {reflection} (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.
\Plane\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Planed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Planing}.] [Cf. F. planer, L. planare, fr. planus. See {Plane}, a., {Plain}, a., and cf. {Planish}.] 1. To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, to plane a plank. 2. To efface or remove. He planed away the names . . . written on his tables. --Chaucer. 3. Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. [R.] What student came but that you planed her path. --Tennyson.