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 , 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.
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 (?), 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.
&fist; 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., 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.
&fist;
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).
Hear it pronounced