PLANE

Definitions for the word, plane

(a.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.

(a.) 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.

(a.) 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.

(a.) 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.

(a.) Figuratively, to make plain or smooth.

(a.) To efface or remove.

(a.) 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.

(a.) Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface.

(n.) Any tree of the genus Platanus.