| 释义 |
▪ I. plough, plow, n.1|plaʊ|
Forms: see below.
[c gray][Late OE. plóh (plóᵹ), = ON. plógr (in Rígsmál 10–11th c.); so Sw. plog, Da. ploug, plov; in OFris. plōch (EFris. plōg, NFris. pluwge), MLG. plōch, plūch, MDu. ploech (Du. ploeg), OHG. pfluog (MHG. pfluoc, Ger. pflug):—Teut. type *plôgo- or *plôho-, whence also Lombard Lat. plo(v)um, -us (Du Cange), Lomb. piò, Tirol. plof plough. The regular OE. inflexion of plóh would have dat. ploᵹe, gen. ploᵹes, nom. pl. ploᵹas, giving in early ME. ploh, ploȝe, ploȝes, later plouh, plowh, plowgh, pl. plowes; whence, by form-levelling, plough, ploughs, or plow, plows; the former the accepted spelling in England since 1700, the latter usual in U.S. In pronunciation, the final guttural was lost in some districts in 14th c., and has quite disappeared not only in the standard language, but in all dialects south of the Peak of Derbyshire; it remains in Scotland as (x[/c]) (pleuch, pluich = |pløx, plʏx|), and in the north of England is represented by f (pleuf, plewf, pluif, pluf, pleaf, plif, etc.: see Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v.). In plough v. (q.v.) neither gh nor f is pronounced.
As with path, penny, and other early p-words in Teutonic, the origin of plóᵹ, plóh, is involved in obscurity. Apparently the word was of late appearance. It is not found in Gothic, which used hôha, nor in OE. which used sulh, still retained dialectally, esp. in s.w., where plough is not used in this sense: see sull n., and cf. Eng. Dial. Dict. In Norse, also, the earlier name appears to have been arðr, cognate with OS. erida, f. vbl. root ar- to till, plough (see ear v.), which survives in Norwegian as ar a small plough, perh. an earlier and simpler implement than the plógr. The name is also found in Lith. pliugas, and in the Slavonic langs. generally, OSlav., Serv., Russ. plugu, Pol. plug, Boh. pluh; but is there admittedly from German.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
1. sing. (α) 1–4 ploh, 2 ploȝ, 3–4 plouh, plouȝ, 3–5 plogh, 4–5 plowȝ(-e), 4–7 plowgh, 4– plough, (5 ploghe, plowghe, plowh(-e), 5–6 ploughe).
a1100Sax. Leechd. III. 286 Ne plot ne ploh. c1200,a1225Ploh [see B. 1]. a1250Prov. ælfred 95 in O.E. Misc. 108 Þat..þe cheorl beo in fryþ..And his plouh beo i-dryue to vre alre bihoue. a1300Cursor M. 12388 (Cott.) Plogh [Tr. plowȝe] and haru cuth he dight. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 95 His pilgrym atte plouȝ. Ibid. 118 For oure plouh. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 29 Wayke been the Oxen in my Plough [rime ynough]. c1400Mandeville (1839) xvii. 183 Callynge on oxen in the plowgh [Roxb. plugh]. c1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 665/42 Hoc aratrum, plogh. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 11400 Carte & plowh, they ber vp al. c1450Lovelich Grail liii. 310 Good Inowhe, Of londes and Rentes, Oxen And plowhe. 1483Cath. Angl. 284/2 A Ploghe (A. Plughe), aratrum. 1530Palsgr. 256/1 Ploughe, chareve. 1532in Weaver Wells Wills (1890) 65 Half my plowȝthe viz. iij oxen. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 54 Mad braine, too rough, Marres all at plough.
(β) 4 plou, 4–5 plo, 4–7 plowe, 5 ploo, 4– plow.
13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 68 To see hem pulle in þe plow. c1460Towneley Myst. ii. 459, I shall hang the apon this plo [rimes do, lo]. 1466Paston Lett. II. 286 They shuld hold the plowe to the tayle. 1607Norden Surv. Dial. iv. 181 A dayes worke of a plowe. 1702Addison Dial. Medals ii. (1727) 93 And does the plow for this my body tear? 1718Rowe tr. Lucan i. 48 Fields unknowing of the plow [rime low]. 1828Webster, Plow. 1902Ibid., Plow, Plough.
(γ) Sc. and north. 4–5 plugh, 5 pluȝe, plughe, pleuche, (plucht), 6 plewgh(-e), plewch(-e), pluch(-e), pluiche, plwch, (pluchet), 6–8 plewch, 5– pleuch, 8– pleugh; 4 plue, 5 plwe, 5–6 plewe, 6 pleu, 4– plew; 9 dial. pluff, pleuf, pleaf, pliff, etc.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxviii. (Margaret) 70 Sic as men wynnis of erd & pleuch. Ibid. xl. (Ninian) 132 In goddis ȝard to set plucht [rime Inuch]. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xviii. 85 Þe ox will drawe in þe plugh. c1420Avow. Arth. xlix, God hase a gud pluȝe. 1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 240 The ox may nocht wele drawe in the pleuche bot gif he have a falowe. 1513Douglas æneis xiii. x. 7 First gan he mark and cirkill with a plewch. 1535Aberdeen Regr. XV. (Jam.), Ane pluchet furnest with gair tharto. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 273 That men sould leve thairout baith da and nycht Thair plew yrnis. a1568Wowing Jok & Jynny vi. (Bann. MS.), Withouttin oxin I haif a pluche. 1721Ramsay Richy & Sandy 70 Thomas has loos'd his ousen frae the pleugh. 1786Burns Twa Dogs 201 A country fellow at the pleugh. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Pluff, pleugh, a plough.
2. pl. 2 ploᵹes, 3 plouis, 4–5 plowȝes, 4–7 plowes, 5 ploes, plogges, 5–7 ploughes, 6 Sc. plewis, 6– plows, 7– ploughs.
1131O.E. Chron. an. 1131 On þa tun þa wæs tenn ploᵹes oðer twelfe gangende, ne belæf noht an. a1275Prov. ælfred 95 in O.E. Misc. 109 His plouis to driuin. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2785 To hem þat at plowes ȝede. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 165 Here plowȝes ȝede nouȝt aryȝt. c1400Mandeville (1839) xxiii. 250 Cartes, plowes, and waynes. c1420Anturs of Arth. xii. (Irel. MS.), Of palas, of parkes, of poundes, of ploes [rime cloes = cloughs]. 1449Maldon, Essex, Court-Rolls (Bundle 29 No. 3), Nullus habeat plogges. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §1 Howe a plough shulde be made. §2 There be plowes of dyuers makynges. 1566Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 493 Oxin to serve and labour in his plewis. 1632Heywood 1st Pt. Iron Age i. i. Wks. 1874 III. 272 So many Hatchets, Hammers, Plowes and Sawes Were thither brought. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 156 There are no less than an hundred different ploughs in England.
B. Signification.
1. a. An agricultural implement, used to prepare the soil for sowing or planting, by cutting furrows in it, and turning it up, so as to expose a fresh surface to the action of the air. Often used as the symbol of agriculture, esp. in such expressions as to be at the plough, to follow or hold the plough.
It consists essentially of a cutting blade (in primitive types a pointed stick) fixed in a frame drawn by oxen or horses (or in recent times by mechanical power, as steam), and guided by a man.
c1200Ormin 15902 Þatt all swa summ þe nowwt i ploh Þe turrnenn erþe & tawwenn. a1225Ancr. R. 384 Ȝif..þe spade ne dulue, ne þe suluh [MS. T. ploh] ne erede, hwo kepte ham uorte holden? c1400Plowman's T. 1042 Had they ben out of religioun, They must have honged at the plow. 1515Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C iv/1 Some for the charet, some for the cart or plough, And some for hakneyes, if they be light and tough. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 390 Few or none of them were Gentlemen, but taken from the plough and cart, and other craftes. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 21 The partes of the Plowe, are the Tayle, the Shelfe, the Beame, the Foote, the Coulter, the Share, the Wheeles, and the Staffe. 1601Cecil in Sir S. D'Ewes Jrnl. Ho. Lords & Comm. (1693) 674, I do not dwell in the Country, I am not acquainted with the Plough: But I think that whosoever doth not maintain the Plough, destroys this Kingdom. 1718Rowe tr. Lucan i. 323 Foreign Tenants reap the harvest now, Where once the great Dictator held the Plow. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 481 The celebrated Mr. Vareinge, professor of mathematics, followed the plough till he was eight and twenty years of age. 1822Scott Pirate iv, The heavy cart-load of timber, called the old Scots plough.
b. With prefixed words, denominating peculiarities of structure or purpose: e.g.
double plough, a plough with two shares, one by which two furrows can be turned at once; also, a reversible plough; hand-p., a small light garden plough drawn or pushed by hand; seeding-p., a plough which also scatters seed in the furrow; side-hill p., one adapted for ploughing across a steep slope; skeleton-p., one in which certain parts are in skeleton form; straddle-p., one with two shares for running on each side of, and covering in, a line of seed; also double mould-board p., drain-p., mole-hill p., reversible p., steam-p., subsoil-p., etc. Others, of which the meaning is not self-evident, will be found under their first element, or in their alphabetical place; e.g. breast-, dray-, gang-, hoe-, ice-, mole-, shim-, snow-, turn-wrest-, wheel-plough, etc.
1653W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. 202 The Double Plough ploughing two Furrows at one time. 1704Dict. Rust. s.v., The Double-wheeled Plough, constantly used in Hartfordshire and elsewhere... The One-wheeled plough, which may be almost used in any sort of Land. 1721J. Edmonds in Mortimer Husb. I. 101 He says likewise, that he improved some of the same sort of Land by plowing of it up with a Breast-plough. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 416 Plough up your Mole-hills, &c. with a Mole-hill Plough. 1836Penny Cycl. V. 307 In Brabant..They use the excellent Flemish swing plough, which they call a foot plough, as it is also called in some parts of England, in contradistinction to a wheel plough. At the same time they also retain the old and heavy turn wrest plough. 1874Knight Dict. Mech. 728 The double-plow, in which a shallow share preceded the deeper-running, longer plow, originated in England, where it is known as the skim-coulter plow. Ibid. 940 The originator of the double plow seems to have been Lord Somerville, who devoted much attention to the practical details of agriculture (1799). His plow..he called a double-furrow plow.
c. In various fig. applications: e.g. † (a) as the instrument or means of earning one's livelihood (obs.); (b) in reference to its breaking up hard ground; etc.
(a)c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxxiv. (Pelagia) 57 Þat wynnyng wes lang hir plucht. c1386Chaucer Shipman's T. 288 But o thyng is..Of Chapmen that hir moneie is hir plogh. a1400Isumbras 397 Þay bade hym swynke,..‘Hafe we none oþer ploghe’.
(b)1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 23 Our hertes, whiche we eare & breke with the plough of abstynence. 1668R. Steele Husbandman's Calling vi. (1672) 142 He puts in the plough of mortification. 1781Cowper Hope 234 Their mind a wilderness through want of care, The plough of wisdom never entering there.
d. Phrases. (a) to put (lay, set) one's hand to the plough (after Luke ix. 62), to undertake a task; to enter upon a course of life or conduct.
1382Wyclif Luke ix. 62 No man sendynge [1388 that puttith] his hond to the plouȝ, and biholdinge aȝen, is able to the rewme of God. 1526Tindale ibid., No man that putteth hys honde to the plowe, and loketh backe is apte to the kyngdom of god. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. iv. 253 Quhen he had put hand to the pluiche, to receiue yairof proffite and gude fructe. 1632Sanderson Serm. 417 Reach foorth thine hand towards this spirituall Plow. 1718Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell i. xxiii. 47 It was Time..to set his Hand to the Plow in good Earnest. 1886Mrs. E. Lynn Linton P. Carew xxv, He had put his hand to the plow, and he was not the man to turn back.
† (b) to put the plough before the oxen, to reverse the natural or proper order: cf. cart n. 5. Obs.
[1340Ayenb. 243 Moche uolk of religion zetteþ þe zuolȝ beuore þe oksen.] 1571Satir. Poems Reform. xxix. 9 That makis..The plewche befoir the oxin go, the best the man to gyde. 1653Urquhart Rabelais i. (Farmer), He would put the plough before the oxen, and claw where it did not itch.
(c) under the plough: (of land), in cultivation.
1836Penny Cycl. V. 225 There are actually under the plough 307,800 [acres].
2. a. Sc. A team of horses (or oxen) harnessed to a plough.
[Cf. quot. 1131 in A. 2.]1575–6Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 501 Arthour Grahame..cruellie..cuttit the plewis, dang and straik his servandis to the greit effusioun of thair blude. 1786Burns To Auld Mare xv, My pleugh is now thy bairn-time a', Four gallant brutes as e'er did draw. 1809Bawdwen Domesday Bk. 101 Earl Alan has now in the demesne six ploughs, and 14 villanes and 6 bordars with four ploughs. There is a church and a priest with half a plough.
b. Chiefly s.w. dial. A team of draught beasts harnessed to a wagon; sometimes including the wagon.
1505Liber Ruber Wells Cath. lf. 123 b, Departed unto God by a mysfortune of his ploughe by reson whereof [etc.]. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon §328 (1810) 337 He took harts..and made of them a plow to draw timber thence to build a church. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 330 A Plough, a term used in the Western parts for a Team of Horse or Oxen. 1762Borlase in Phil. Trans. LII. 507 The driver of a plough,..laden with tin, for Penzance coinage,..found himself and the plough, on a sudden, surrounded by the sea. 1813T. Davis Agric. Wilts Gloss. s.v., A waggon and horses, or cart and horses together, are called plough in South Wilts. 1873Williams & Jones Somerset Gloss., Plough, a team of horses; also a waggon and horses, or a waggon and oxen.
†3.
a. = plough-land 1. Obs.
a1100[see A. 1 α]. c1400Gamelyn 57 Iohn my eldest sone shal haue plowes fyue That was my fadres heritage while he was on lyue. Ibid. 358 Þou hast hade..xv. plowes of lond þis sixtene ȝere. c1450Oseney Cart. 163/25 (E.E.T.S.), j. mese with ij. croftes..In the towne of Edburbury, and j. plowe of londe In the feldes of þe same towne. 1483Cath. Angl. 284/2 A Ploghe of lande, carrucata. 1597Skene De Verb. Sign., Hida terræ, ane pleuch of land. 1761Hume Hist. England i. xix. 443 The ecclesiastical revenues, which..contained eighteen thousand four hundred ploughs of land. 1791T. Newte Tour Eng. & Scot 237 A plough of land in the Highlands..is, on an average, about fifteen Scotch, or twenty English acres of arable land, besides a certain extent of hilly, or pasture land.
b. Ploughed land. (Chiefly hunting slang.)
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. 18 It makes no odds to him, pasture or plough. 1883Pall Mall G. 21 Dec. 4/2 It is by his permission..that the gaily-decked squadrons..go thundering across the pasture and ploughs of middle and southern England. 1884Graphic 18 Oct. 410/1 The scent [of the fox] on the plough is cold.
4. transf. (With capital initial.) The group of seven prominent stars, also called Charles's Wain, in the constellation of Ursa Major; also, that constellation as a whole.
Cf. L. Triones (lit. plough-oxen), the Great and Little Bears (Virg. æn. iii. 516 geminos Triones).
1513Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 151 The pleuch, and the polys, the planettis begane, The son, the sevin sternis, and the Charll wane. 1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. §341. 154 One of the most striking circumpolar constellations is Ursa Major.., the Plough, or Charles's Wain. 1893K. Grahame Pagan Papers (1894) 104 High and dominant amidst the Population of the Sky..hangs the great Plough.
5. Applied to various instruments, parts of machinery, etc., resembling a plough in shape or action.
a. An instrument or machine for cutting or trimming the edges of books; the knife of a plough-press or cutting-press.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 360/2 Plow, or cutting Knife by which the leaves of Books are cut even. 1771Luckombe Hist. Print. 409 The..parts of the paper whose Margin is adjusted..are subject to the Bookbinder's Plough. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 395/2 Upon one of the cheeks [of the cutting press] are two guides, or small raised rails, for the plough to work in.
b. A plane for cutting rabbets or grooves.
1678Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 68–9 The Plow..is a narrow Rabbet-Plain,..The Office of the Plow is to plow a narrow square Groove on the edge of a Board. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 111. 1881 Young Every Man his own Mechanic §396 The plough is necessary in such work as making drawers.
c. An instrument for cutting the flushing parts of the pile or nap of fustian.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
d. A knife used for ‘ploughing’ mackerels, etc.: see plough v. 7 c and mackerel-plough.
†e. An instrument for taking the altitude of a heavenly body. Obs.
1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 617 There are other Instruments for taking of the Altitude of the Sun and Stars; as the Plough, the Astrolabe, the Demi-Cross, the Bow. 1710J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, Plow, an Ancient Instrument, tho' now not much used at Sea.
f. A narrow shovel with which the barley is turned over in malting.
1875Ure Dict. Arts II. 188 When turning only is required, he uses what is called the ‘plough’; this is a long-handled tool, in shape very much resembling the scull of a boat, and in using it is made to pass through the grain, precisely as a scull is made to do in the water.
g. In an electric tramcar on the conduit system: The rod maintaining contact with the live rail.
1903Daily Chron. 16 Mar. 5/2 They are..fitted..with the underground trolleys which make contact with the feeding conductors by means of a ‘plough’ lowered into the slotted conduit.
h. Any of various implements for deflecting (e.g. off a conveyor belt or a railway track) material against which they move, or which moves against them; in quots. 1860, 1975, a snow-plough.
1860Clark & Colburn Rec. Pract. Locomotive Engine 68/2 In heavy snows, a plough of large size is fitted in front of the engine, to clear the line. a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 173/2 Dowling's plow for unloading platform gravel-cars, is a V-shaped implement which has two flaring wings. 1901M. M. Kirkman Building & Repairing Railways viii. 333 The Rodgers ballast car dumps the ballast in the center of the track, the last car in train of ballast cars having a plow for cleaning and flanging the track. 1922F. V. Hetzel Belt Conveyors & Belt Elevators viii. 159 In some European boiler houses the bunker is served by a flat belt which runs through a movable carriage equipped with a V-point plow and a two-way chute. 1953W. W. Hay Railroad Engin. xxii. 316 A spreader-type plow follows the unloading operation to spread the ballast where it is needed. 1971B. Scharf Engin. & its Language xvi. 235 A plough (movable gate) may be provided across the belt so that the conveyor can be unloaded at that point or in order to deflect the material on to another conveyor. 1975D. Pitts Target Manhattan (1976) xxviii. 117, I want your team of plows at Broadway and West 14th.
i. Coal Mining. A machine with cutting blades that remove a thin strip of coal when it is hauled along a coal face.
1950Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers CIX. 273 The coal seams in this country are too hard to allow of the plough being successfully used. 1952Times 16 Sept. 3/2 In his report for 1951, published to-day, Mr. G. Hoyle, North-Western Divisional Inspector of Mines, refers to revolutionary developments in mining technique... He instances the use of the plough and stripper for coal getting. 1964A. Nelson Dict. Mining 335 Normally, on a wide face, and working 6 hr, a plough will produce 800 tons and more of coal in a 3 ft thick seam. 1971Daily Tel. 20 Oct. 13/1 Machines, with strange names like Anderton shearers, trepanners, rapid ploughs or Huwood slicers, have replaced men underground.
6. An antler or branch on the horn of a caribou.
1892W. Pike North. Canada 45 The perfect double plough is more often seen in the smaller specimen, the larger animal being usually provided with only one, or with one plough and a spike.
7. attrib. and Comb. (some of which may belong to the verb).
a. attrib., ‘of or pertaining to a plough or ploughing’, as plough-beast, plough-chain, plough-clevis, plough-collar, plough-coulter, plough-culture, plough-feast, plough-field, plough-folk, plough-furrow, plough-garran (garron), plough-ground, plough-harness, plough-horse, plough-jade, plough-mark, plough-neat, plough-ox, plough-rein, plough-rip, plough-rope, plough-servant, plough-service, plough-shaft, plough-sock, plough-tackling, plough-team, plough-timber, plough-time, plough-track, plough-upland, plough-wheel, plough-woman, plough-work;
b. objective and obj. genitive, as plough-holder, plough-maker;
c. instrumental, etc., as plough-bred, plough-cloven, plough-torn adjs.;
d. similative, as plough-shaped adj.
1454in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 120 Toke all the *plow-bestes and other bestes of the said villages.
1788E. Picken Now-a-days Poems 61 Ilk *plow-bred wight wad gang, dear safe us!
1897Crockett Lad's Love xxix, I'll..send the men up wi' *pleuch-chains and cairt-rapes.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Plow-clevis, the stirrup-shaped piece on the nose of a plow-beam, having three loops, in either of which the open ring of the double-tree may be placed, according to the depth of furrow desired.
1871Swinburne Songs bef. Sunrise, Hertha 37 The *plough-cloven clod.
1908Sears, Roebuck Catal. 137/4 A Southern *Plow Collar. Made of heavy cotton duck with leather chafes on the side where the chain or trace attaches to the hame. 1942W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 255 Plowlines and plow-collars and hames and trace-chains.
1937R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory viii. 114 Thus was conceived the antithesis of primitive ‘hoe-culture’ and ‘*plough-culture‘, the latter being the exclusive mark of higher civilizations. 1961L. Mumford City in Hist. i. 27 Where hoe culture supported hamlets, plow culture could support whole cities and regions.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 66 The Athenians had three several *plow-feasts which they observed yearly.
1805Sporting Mag. XXV. 315 My landlady's two sons were arrived from the *plough field.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 273 If the *plough-folks do idlely wast their maisters substance.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 490 Deeper than the *plough-furrow.
1687Irish Proclam. 24 Sept., *Plow-Garrans and other small horses.
1640in H. Bond Hist. Watertown, Mass. (1855) II. 998 Ordered that the hither Plain, being subdivided into several Lotts for *Plow-ground, shall be made a common field. 1895W. Raymond Smoke of War vii. 84 Like a rook in a plough-ground.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 576 A smyth,..That in his forge smythed *plough harneys. 1886T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. iv, Plough-harness at the saddler's.
1613Markham Eng. Husbandm. iii. B iij, A stay and aide to the *Plough houlder.
1539Wyatt Let. in R. W. Bailey Early Mod. English (1978) 233/1 And I w[i]t[h] much ado apon *plow horse In the diepe and fowle way gatt afore that nyght late to loshes. 1573T. Tusser Five Hundreth Points Good Husbandry xviii, Sedge couers for plow horse, for lightnes of neck. 1744W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Jan. xxi. 56, I feed my Plough Horses with these green Thetches. 1817Scott Rob Roy II. xiii. 280 There may be pasture aneugh for pleugh-horses, and owsen, and forty or fifty cows. 1880Harper's Mag. Aug. 356/2 The next day the two girls, mounted on the plough horse and mare, followed an old Indian trail. 1911R. D. Saunders Col. Todhunter ix. 118 A wall-eyed plow-horse with his tail full o'cuckle-burs. 1955W. Moore Bring Jubilee i. 5 He would lay the reins on the plough-horse's back.
1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 214 The pampered Palfreyes which eate away the prouender from the leane *plough Iades. 1600Heywood 2nd Pt. Edw. IV, Wks. 1874 I. 122 That sike bonny men sud be hampert like plu-jades.
1812Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. ii. App. 38 Apprentice to a country carpenter and *ploughmaker.
1930W. Faulkner As I lay Dying 125 After a while she went on, stumbling a little on the *plow-marks. 1963Field Archaeol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 4) 56 A recent excavation has shown round huts..closely associated with plough-marks in underlying sand. 1973Nature 23 Nov. 191/2 Further ambiguity was introduced by the presence of iceberg plough marks around the Rockall bank and evidence of ice-rafted deposition.
1552Huloet, *Ploughe neate or oxen, triones.
1503Dunbar Thistle & Rose 111 Lat no bowgle, with his busteous hornis, The meik *pluch ox oppress. 1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 237 Down would come the King's Officers, and take our plough-oxen to haul them [sc. guns] to the coast. 1946E. Linklater Private Angelo xx. 257 Two pairs of matched plough-oxen arrived in Pontefiore.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 619 The ploughman guides the horses with *plough-reins, made of rein-rope.
1536MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for ij par' of *plowgh ryppis iiij d.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxxix. ii, Thou Hast their *plow-ropes cutt in two!
1733Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xi. 124 Villainies of English *Plow-Servants.
1766Blackstone Comm. II. vi. 80 Our common lawyers..derive it from soca, an old Latin word denoting (as they tell us) a plough:..that, in memory of it's original, it still retains the name of socage or *plough-service.
1878Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 435 The ‘*plough-shaped bone’ forms the terminal portion of the vertebral column.
1695J. Telfair in Nicholson Hist. & Trad. Tales (1843) 16 It cast a *plough-sock at him. 1814Scott Wav. l, Plough-socks, shuttles, candlesticks, and other ordinaries.
1695J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 114 The Gordian knot was but *plough-tackling hamper'd in a knot.
1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 324 Formerly, four horses a-breast was the *plough team of the highlands, and is still in use. 1896M. T. Pearman Hist. Manor Bensington, Oxon. 10 The quantity of land a plough-team will turn up in a year varies according to the soil.
1626Bacon Sylva §658 Some are best for *Plough-Timber: as Ash.
1607Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 193 Dry vp thy Marrowes, Vines, and *Plough-torne Leas.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 490 The black mould immediately under the *plough-track had been compressed.
1730N. Jersey Archives XI. 226 There is also 100 Acres of *Plough-Upland in very good Order.
1733Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xxv. 414 In plowing miry Clays, where *Plow Wheels cannot go.
1860G. H. K. in Vac. Tour. 164 The *plough-woman dropped her cras-crom in the scratch that did duty for a furrow. 1880Dorothy p. xvi, The two Yorkshire girls were..both..excellent ploughwomen.
8. Special Combs.: † plough-bat = plough-staff; † plough-beetle = plough-mell; plough-bird, -bolt: see quots.; † plough-boon, in ME. ploȝbone, ploughing done as a service by a tenant for his lord; plow-breast = breast n. 9 b; plough-bullock, (a) a bullock used in ploughing; (b) one of the mummers in the Plough-Monday festivities; also plough-bullocker; so plough-bullocking vbl. n.; † plough-chip = plough-head 1; plough-cleaner: see quot.; † plough-clout, an iron plate nailed to the frame of a plough at the side: cf. clout n.1 2; † plough-cock = cock n.1 14; plough-cutter = plough-press; plough-day, (a) a day on which the tenant was bound to plough for his lord; (b) = Plough-Monday; plough-diamond, a kind of glass-cutter: see quot.; † plough-ear, a piece of iron attached to the right side of the plough-beam, to which the harness was attached: = plough-cock; plough grinding Cotton Spinning, a way of grinding the wires of a cotton card (see quots.); so plough-ground a.; plough-jag (local) = plough-bullock (b); hence plough-jagging, acting as a plough-jag, mumming; † plough-jobber = plough-jogger; plough-knife, the knife of a bookbinder's plough-cutter; plough-light: see quot.; plough-line, (a) the line marking the limit of ploughed land; (b) cord used for the traces or reins of a plough; also (usu. pl.), the reins themselves; also fig.; † plough-master: see quot; † plough-meat, cereals; plough-medal, a medal given as a prize at a ploughing-match; plough-money, † (a) money paid for the right of ploughing; (b) money collected by plough-boys on Plough-Monday; plough-paddle, -pattle, -pettle, a plough-staff: = paddle n.1 1, pattle, pettle n. 1; plough pan Agric. [pan n.1 8], a compacted layer in cultivated soil resulting from repeated ploughing; plough-path: see quot.; † plough-penny, (a) = plough-alms; (b) nonce-use, a penny gained by ploughing; plough-pillow = pillow n. 4 d; † plough-pin, a pin or bolt used in connexion with the collar of a plough: see collar n. 13; plough-plane = sense 5 b; plough-point, the point of a plough-share; often detachable = slip-point; U.S., the first (usu. detachable) share at the front of a plough; † plough-pote: see plough-foot; plough-press, in bookbinding, a press in which a book is held while the edges are cut or ‘ploughed’ (also called cutting-press); † plough-rest, -ryst = reest n.; † plough-shackle, the clevis of a plough; plough-sheath, † plough-silver: see quots.; plough-soil, soil that has been thrown up by ploughing; plough-spade = plough-staff; † plough-spindle: see quot.; † plough-star = sense 4, or ? Arcturus; plough-stock, the iron or metal frame of a plough; plough-stot = plough-bullock; † plough-string, one of the traces of a plough; plough-stuff, the timber used for a wooden plough; † plough-throck = plough-head 1; † plough-till, -tilth = plough-land 1; plough-tree, a plough-handle; plough-trench v., to trench with a plough; plough-truck, a riding attachment to a plough; † plough-ware, beasts employed in ploughing; plough-witch, -witcher (dial.), a Plough-Monday mummer; plough-witching, the performance of the plough-witchers. Also plough-alms, plough-land, etc.
1362*Plowbat [see plough-pote].
1530Palsgr. 256/1 *Ploughe betyll, mailliet de charve. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 37 A plough beetle, ploughstaffe, to further the plough. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 366/1 Plough Staff and Beetle.
1888Ibis 45 The local name of this bird [Sterna Antarctica] in the neighbourhood of Cape Kidnappers, is ‘The *Plough Bird’, or ‘Plough Boy’, given on account of its habit of following the farmer's plough.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Plow Bolt, a bolt for securing the share, landside, or mold-board to the stock.
1438Rental of Guiseley co. York in Add. Roll 41659 Ob. et quadrans for *plogbone.
1884Implement & Mach. Rev. 1 Dec. 6716/2 A horned *plough-breast..is recommended for ploughing after sheep.
1762Gentl. Mag. Dec. 568/2 note, Plough-Monday... On this day the young men yoke themselves, and draw a plough about with musick, and one or two persons, in antic dresses, like jack-puddings, go from house to house, to gather money to drink... We call them [in Derbyshire] the *Plough-Bullocks. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Turnip, To my plough bullocks I allow the same quantity of turnips. 1899A. Nutt in H. Lowerison Field & Folklore 63 Certain players, distinguished by scarlet jackets, and known as plough-bullocks or boggins. 1905Eng. Dial. Dict. IV. 552/1 Plough..-bullockers,..-bullocking. 1923E. C. Pulbrook Eng. Country Life xiii. 194 At Whitby, the young men come in to celebrate the Plough Stots as of old, and the Plough Bullockers occasionally drive their decorated plough through the villages of Derbyshire, to the detriment of those who refuse largesse.
1838W. Howitt Rural Life of Eng. II. iii. 144 Maying, guising, *plough-bullocking, morris-dancing, were gone before..Methodism appeared.
1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. xxviii. (1653) 190 Some call them the Plough-throck, some the *Plough-chip, &c. I shall retain the term of Plough-head.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Plow-cleaner, a long-handled thrusting implement by which the plowman may rid the plow of choking weeds, or the share of accumulated soil.
1376–7Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 386 In uno moldebredclot et ij *plueclot empt{ddd}xvd. 1485in Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees) 373, ij plogh clowtes. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxi. 537 Flat plates of iron nailed to the wooden frame are called plough-clouts.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 333/2 The *Plow Cock is the Iron to tye the Oxen to the Plow.
1550in 7th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Irel. 94 [From every husbandman] vi *ploughe daies, vi cart daies, iii men for a daie to repp corne in harvest. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 20 From Plow-day, which is euer the Munday after Twelfth-day, till S. Valentines day.
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 636 *Plough diamonds have a square nut on the end of the socket, next the glass, which, on running the nut square on the side of the lath, keeps it in the cutting direction.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §3 The *ploughe-eare is made of thre peces of yren, nayled faste vnto the ryght syde of the plough-beame. Ibid. §4 Somme plowes have a bende of yron tryanglewise, sette there as the plough-eare shulde be, that hath thre nyckes on the farther syde.
1892J. Nasmith Students' Cotton Spinning iv. 135 The usual solution of the difficulty is found in the formation of a tooth with a chisel or knife edge, which is presented to the action of the cotton. This is usually obtained by what is called ‘*plough grinding’—that is, a method of passing between the teeth of the clothing a thin emery disc, which ‘ploughs’ deeply between them and grinds them on each side until they present a sharp edge to the cotton. 1923T. Thornley Adv. Cotton Spinning (ed. 3) ii. 77 The plough grinding of the wire works is really side grinding carried to its most perfect degree, and producing a bevelled effect on each tooth from point to knee. 1965W. G. Byerley et al. Man. Cotton Spinning III. vi. 108 In addition to surface- and side-grinding, reference must be made to ‘plough-grinding’. This process was devised and patented by an English firm in 1880... The process..was superseded by the side-grinding process.
1896W. S. Taggart Cotton Spinning I. vi. 176 A is the *plough-ground wire, and is formed by grinding the sides away, almost to the bend, by special emery discs. 1923T. Thornley Adv. Cotton Spinning (ed. 3) ii. 76 The plough ground tooth is obtained at the wire-making establishment by grinding away the sides of the teeth down to the knee or bend.
1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 230 What the mummer is to some other parts of England, the *plough-jag is to Lincolnshire.
Ibid. 229 *Plew-jaggin' is for lads and young men..not for a chap like me, that's just a-goin' to be married.
1683Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 126 Why an Ass, or a *Plough-Jobber shall sooner gain it than a Wise man. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) I. 25 Lye safe at home and our Plowjobbers rule.
1825Hone Every-day Bk. I. 73 Anciently, light called the *Plough-light, was maintained..before images in some churches, and on Plough Monday they..went about with a plough..to get money to support the Plough-light.
1777New Jersey Gaz. 17 Dec. 3/3 *Plough-lines, Bed-Lacings,..Sold by Edward Pole,..Burlington. 1852C. W. Hoskyns Talpa 119 The plough-line steals up the mountain-side. 1886F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-Bk. 582 Plough-lines, or plough-guides,..the cords used as reins. 1895Rep. Educ. Scot. in Westm. Gaz. 25 June 8/1 Hung by a loop of what is known on farms as plough-line. 1935Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men (1970) i. ii. 54 Y'all lady people ain't smarter than all men folks. You got plow lines on some of us, but some of us is too smart for you. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet i. 8 One afternoon he was in the store, cutting lengths of plow-line from a spool. 1969G. E. Evans Farm & Village xi. 126 There they made rope for the plough-lines, the reins or cords, as the horsemen invariably called them.
1642in Linc. N. & Q. July (1888) 86 [In the old Churchwardens' Book of Waddington there is..1642, the appointment of 4] *Plowmeisters..[These plough masters had in their hands certain monies called plough money, which they undertook to produce on plough day.]
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 102 Som cuntries lack *plowmeat, and som doe want cowmeat.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 648 The *plough medals..have..excited a spirit of emulation among ploughmen.
a1600Owen Baronia in Pembrokeshire (1892) 195 note, Within Eglosserow onely Arian Eredig, or *Plowe monye, for right of ploughing.
1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), *Plough-paddle,..called also a plough-staff. 1404*Plogh pattyl, 1786 *Pleugh-pettle [see pattle, pettle 1]. 1820Scott Monast. xiii, ‘He will take to the pleugh-pettle, neighbour’, said the good dame.
1883W. T. Lawrence Princ. Agric. i. 30 By repeatedly ploughing at about the same depth, their downward progress [sc. that of roots] is checked by the formation of a hard bottom called a *plough-pan. 1924Watson & More Agric. v. 86 Sub⁓soiling is absolutely necessary where a plough-pan has been formed. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 19 Jan. 74/1 (caption) Years of cultivation at constant depth have resulted in some plough pan. Once this is broken up the crops will have a better chance of establishment.
1873Williams & Jones Somerset Gloss., *Plough-path, bridle-path.
1547Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 45 Et de x s. vj d. de redditibus vocatis *Plowe pence accidentibus hoc anno. 1608R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1842) 33 Enuy..makes them sterril of all good manners, as the lawyer the poore clyant's plow pence, the cittie the country commodities.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 46 The *Plough-pin and Collar-links..the *Plough-pillow and Boulster.
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 248 The *Plough-Plane..is used for sinking a groove in a board, by taking away a solid in the form of a rectangular prism.
1856in G. N. Jones Florida Plantation Rec. (1927) 478 Paid Mr. Lem Jones 50 cts. on account of '54 maid by J. Evans for 2 *Plow points. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Plow-point, a detachable share at the extreme front end of the plow-body. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 39, I made two or three unsuccessful attempts to get the plough point into the hard frozen ground. 1942W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 168 The boy first remembered himas sitting in the door of the plantation black-smith shop, where he sharpened plow-points and mended tools.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 96 Mi *plouh-pote [v.r. plowbat, B. ploughwes foot, plow-pote, C. ix. 64 plouh-fot, plowbat] schal be my pyk and posshen atte Rootes, And helpe my coltre to kerue and close þe vorwes.
c1350Nominale Gall.-Angl. 148 (E.E.T.S.) Man doth a *plou-reste in the bem. 1613Markham Eng. Husbandm. iii. B iij b, The Plough-rest..is a small peece of woode, which is fixt at one end in the further nicke of the Plough head, and the other end to the Ploughs right-hand hale.
1552Huloet, *Ploughe ryst [printed ryft], bura, buris.
1483Cath. Angl. 284/2 A *Plughe schakille.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §3 The *ploughe sheth is a thyn pece of drye woode, made of oke, that is set fast in a morteys in the plough beame, and also in to the sharebeame, the whiche is the keye and the chiefe bande of all the plough.
1465Norfolk Deed (Anct. Deeds, P.R.O. IV. 68 No. 6678) *Plowsilver. 1675W. Jones Reports 280 In some places they have Plough-silver and Reap-silver, which is Socage Tenure now turned into Money. 1809Tomlins Law Dict., Plow-silver, in former times, was money paid by some tenants, in lieu of service to plough the lord's lands.
1967Antiquaries Jrnl. XLVII. 166 Today, the bank and the ditch..have been largely either ploughed flat or masked by comparatively modern accumulations of *plough-soil. 1976C. Thomas in P. H. Sawyer Medieval Settlement ii. xii. 149 Site XX is a field bounded by a ditch... Its date of use can be fixed by the dated broken pot sherds, part of the extensive domestic manure incorporated in the plough-soil. 1978R. Bradley Prehist. Settlement of Britain 41/2 His argument was based on the foreign stones incorporated in the ploughsoil.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm II. 493 This the ploughman does with his plough-staff, or shaft of his *plough-spade.
1613Markham Eng. Husbandm. iii. B iij, The *Plough spindels,..are two small round peeces of woode, which coupleth together the hales.
1558T. Phaer æneid. iii. H ij b, The wayne, the *plowstar, and the seuen that stormes and tempests poures [æn. iii. 516 Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones]. 1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 87 Thee lights starrye noting in globe celestial hanging: Thee seun stars stormy, twise told, thee plowstar eke Arcture.
1786G. Washington Diary 9 Jan. (1925) III. 5 [I] directed them to get me..scantling for *Plow stocks. 1865Oregon State Jrnl. 28 Oct. 4/2 Plow Stocks etc., made to order, on short notice. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet i. ii. 35 Ab..had snuck the wagon out the back way with the plow stocks and the sorghum mill in it. 1944T. D. Clark Pills, Petticoats & Plows 276 Centre and rear passageways were blocked with piles of iron plows..plow stocks..and axes.
1820Sporting Mag. VI. 283 Youth dragging a plough, who, as they officiate for oxen, are called *plough-stots. 1893Whitby Gaz. 8 Dec. 2/5 It would seem as though the spirit of the Plough Stots is waning and that for some reason or other they are losing interest in their annual excursions into the town.
c1350Nominale Gall.-Angl. 858 (E.E.T.S.) Lapparayle pur charue..*Plowestryngges. 1649*Plough-throck [see plough-chip].
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxii. (1516) 143/2 margin, A knyghts fee shuld welde clx. acres, and that is demed for a *ploughe tyll in a yere.
1597–1602Transcript W. Riding Sessions Rolls 104 Every person occupying a *plough-tilth of land.
1869Blackmore Lorna D. lxxiv, I..held my *plough-tree just the same as if no King or Queen had ever come to spoil my..hand.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 56 It may be done by one Plough making of a deep Furrow, and another following in the same Furrow, or by *Plough-trenching, which is for a Plough to make a deep Furrow, and to have eight or ten Men with Spades to follow the Plough, and making the Trench a spit deeper. 1765Museum Rust. IV. 174 Instead of digging it with the spade, I plough-trenched it at least eighteen inches deep.
1465Marg. Paston in P. Lett. II. 183 He had a plowe goyng in your lond in Drayton, and ther your seyd servaunts..toke hys *plowe ware, that ys to say ij marys. Ibid. 184 Ther was taken a playnt ayenst hem..for takyng of the forseyd plowarre at Drayton.
1827Clare Sheph. Cal. 156 On *Plough-witch-Monday, I was in the barn. 18..E. Smith MS. Collect. Warwicks. Words (E.D.D.), Down to 1874..the plough witches presented themselves on the evening of Plough Monday, with faces painted white, and marked out hideously in red or black lines.
1860N. & Q. 2nd Ser. IX. 381/2 The mummers are called ‘*Plough-witchers’, and their ceremony ‘*Plough-witching’.
Add:[B.] [4.] b. In Yoga, a position assumed by lying on one's back, and swinging one's legs over one's head until the feet approach or touch the floor.
1925Yoga-Mīmānsā July 228 Halāsana or the Plough Pose... The pose is called Halāsana because in its practice the body is made to imitate the Indian plough. 1966R. C. Hittleman Yoga for Physical Fitness i. 48 In the Plough the vertebrae are bent outward, beginning with the base of the spine and progressing upward. 1987P. Westcott Alternative Health Care for Women iii. 120 Yoga poses such as the Fish, Plough and Shoulder Stand can all benefit piles.
▪ II. plough, n.2 slang.
[f. plough v. 8.]
The act or fact of rejecting a candidate in an examination.
1863Reade Hard Cash ii. I. 52 It is only out of Oxford a plough is thought much of. 1897Westm. Gaz. 3 Nov. 10/1 In the..Bar examination, the percentage of ploughs is..9 per cent...ploughed in Roman Law, and 20 per cent. in Constitutional History. 1899Ibid. 1 June 10/1 There has been the usual plough in the final of about 36 per cent.
▪ III. plough, plow, v.|plaʊ|
Forms: 5–6 plowghe (5 north. plugh(e), 5–7 plowe, 6– plow (Sc. plew), (6–7) 8– plough. (Erron. pa. pple. 6 plowen.)
[f. plough n.1 So MDu., Du. ploegen, MLG., LG. plogen, MHG. phluogen, Ger. pflügen, ON. pløgja. In 16–17th c. the n. was normally plough and the vb. plow(e, repr. ME. types ploh, ploȝen or plowen (cf. enough, enow = OE. ᵹenóh, ᵹenóᵹe); so mod.Sc. pleuch n., pleuw vb.; but the spelling plough occurs also for the verb in 16–17th c., and became usual in England during the 18th c., when n. and vb. were levelled in form; in U.S. they have both become plow.]
1. a. trans. To make furrows in and turn up (the earth) with a plough, especially as a preparation for sowing; also absol. to use a plough.
c1420–40Plowynge [see ploughing vbl. n. 1]. c1460Towneley Myst. ii. 54 That we had ployde [? ploȝde] this land. 1483Cath. Angl. 284/2 To Plowghe (A. Plugh), arare. 1523Fitzherb. Surv. 2 It is conuenyent that they be plowen and sowen. 1530Palsgr. 660/2, I wyll ploughe all the lande I have in your towne to yere. 1607Norden Surv. Dial. iv. 181 As much as 2. oxen could plow. 1611Cotgr., Charruë, a Plough. Charruër, to till, eare, plow. Charrué, tilled, plowed. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 133 Once Ploughing the Land..will..be sufficient. 1759tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. vii. (1762) 17 It is plowed into high ridges with a strong plough. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 361 As much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in one day. 1816W. Smith Strata Ident. 12 When wet and fresh plowed. 1816Scott Old Mort. vii, I am no clear if I can pleugh [error for plew] ony place but the Mains and Muckle⁓whame. 1880Scribner's Mag. 215 They have plowed and fitted for grain-growing 3,000 acres.
b. With resultant object: To make (a furrow, ridge, line) by ploughing. Also fig.
1589Pasquil's Ret. C j b, God shall..punish euery forrow they haue plowed vpon his backe. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) I. 286/2 By casting, that is, by ploughing two ridges together beginning at the furrow that separates them. 1810Amos Ess. Agric. Mach. ii. 18 [A machine] for ploughing Furrows nine by five inches square. 1901Ld. Rosebery in Times 20 July 15/5, I must proceed alone. I must plough my furrow alone. 1936E. White Wheel Spins iii. 29 She always ploughed a straight furrow, right to its end. 1977Dædalus Summer 149 In the United States, George Sarton had been plowing a lonely furrow at Harvard's Widener Library for about twenty-five years. 1978Lancashire Life Nov. 39/2 No easy task, with everybody else ploughing the same furrow.
2. a. intr. (or absol.) To use the plough, work as a ploughman, till the ground.
1535Coverdale Prov. xx. 4 A slouthfull body wyl not go to plowe for colde. 1607Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 71 The Cockle of Rebellion, Insolence, Sedition, which we our selues haue plowed for, sow'd. 1611Bible Job i. 14 The oxen were plowing [Coverdale a plowinge], and the asses feeding beside them. ― 1 Cor. ix. 10 That hee that ploweth, should plow in hope. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 2 Tim. ii. 6 The Husbandman must labour (plow, sow, &c.) before he reap and gather the Fruit. 1847L. Hunt Jar of Honey (1848) 197 Twenty-three pair of oxen were ploughing together within a square of thirty acres. 1868Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 199 A man taught to plough, row or steer well,..[is] already educated in many essential moral habits.
b. intr. in pass. sense (of land): To bear or stand ploughing (easily, well, etc.); to prove (tough, etc.) in the ploughing.
1762Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. I. 152 It ploughed very tough, and the cattle mired in some places. 1847Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 571 The land generally ploughs up in a friable state. 1864Ibid. XXV. ii. 528 The clover-lands..ploughed remarkably well.
3. a. trans. By extension: To furrow as by ploughing; to gash, tear up, scratch (any surface). Often plough up: see 9 e.
1588, etc. [see 9 e]. 1740Somerville Hobbinol ii. 84 Th' insidious Swain..Fell prone and plough'd the Dust. 1784Cowper Task v. 50 His dog..snatches up the drifted snow With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout. 1856J. H. Newman Callista i. 2 The Bagradas..ploughed the rich and yielding mould with its rapid stream.
b. With resultant object, as course, line.
1831Scott Cast. Dang. iii, The course which the river had ploughed for itself down the valley. 1855Kingsley Glaucus 14 It was..the stones fallen from Snowdon peak into the half-liquid lake of ice above, which ploughed those furrows. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life ii. i. (1875) 51 The line-engraver..month after month, ploughs slowly his marvellous lines.
c. intr. To move through soft ground, snow, etc., furrowing it.
1847Le Fanu T. O'Brien 209 Drenched in inky slime..Miles Garrett ploughed and floundered to the other side. 1876A. H. Green Phys. Geol. iv. §5 (1877) 160 Icebergs which after they had run aground and ploughed into the bottom [of the deposits of boulder clay]. 1894Fenn In Alpine Valley II. 246 Deane came ploughing through the snow up to the window.
4. fig. Of a ship, boat, swimming animal, etc.: To cleave the surface of the water. Chiefly poet.
a. trans.
1607Shakes. Timon v. i. 53 'Tis thou that rigg'st the Barke, and plow'st the Fome. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. xxxvi, Vain men..who plough the seas, With dangerous pains, another Earth to finde. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 24 Once again committing ourselves to the Sea, we ploughed deeper Water. a1732Gay Fables ii. viii. 25 When naval traffic plows the main. 1782Cowper Loss Royal George x, He and his eight hundred Shall plough the wave no more. 1836Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. xvi. 216 The river was ploughed by porpoises, and the shore crowded with aquatic birds.
b. With resultant object, as course, way.
1696Prior To the King 56 On..Britain's joyful sea, Behold, the monarch ploughs his liquid way. 1780Cowper Table-t. 522 Give me the line [of verse] that plows its stately course Like a proud swan, conquering the stream by force. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xviii. 228 Ploughing its way with irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea. 1873Black Pr. Thule ii, The steamer..ploughed her way across the blue and rushing waters of the Minch.
c. intr.
1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 154 These streams..spread out into broad superficial sheets or layers, which the keels of vessels plough through. 1867Good Cheer 2 He had ‘ploughed over many a stormy sea’. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 117/1 A few tugs plowing up stream left behind them wakes.
5. trans. fig. To furrow (the face, brow, etc.) deeply with wrinkles; also with resultant object.
1725Ramsay Gentle Sheph. v. iii, Has fifteen years so plew'd A wrinkled face that you have often view'd. 1742Pope Dunc. iv. 204 Before them march'd that awful Aristarch; Plough'd was his front with many a deep Remark. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. xlii, Italia!.. On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame. 1837Wheelwright tr. Aristophanes I. 56 note, Her face..rough, and ploughed with wrinkles. 1857Holland Bay Path xix. 218 Jealousy and pride..ploughed no furrows across her brow.
b. To obliterate by ploughing wrinkles.
1818Byron Mazeppa v, A port, not like to this ye see, But smooth, as all is rugged now; For time, and care, and war, have plough'd My very soul from out my brow.
6. a. In various figurative applications of the primary and transferred senses.
1535Coverdale Job iv. 8 Those that plowe wickednesse..and sowe myschefe, they reape y⊇ same. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 342 The soyle of his inuention, memorie, and iudgement, is so ordinarily ploughed with practise and experience. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 233 Royall Wench: She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed, He ploughed her, and she cropt. 1607― Cor. v. iii. 34 Let the Volces Plough Rome, and harrow Italy. 1608― Per. iv. vi. 154. 1609 Bible (Douay) Ecclus. vii. 13 Plowe not a lie [Vulg. noli arare mendacium] agaynst thy brother. 1624Ford Sun's Darling ii. i, Beckon the rurals in; the country-gray Seldom ploughs treason. 1652Milton Sonn. Cromwell, Cromwell..who through a cloud..To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd. 1838Emerson Addr. Camb. Mass. Wks. (Bohn) II. 193 Jesus..whose name is not so much written as ploughed into the history of this world. 1884F. P. Cobbe in Contemp. Rev. Dec. 805 Out of hearts ploughed by contrition spring flowers.
b. intr. To proceed laboriously or doggedly through, to labour, to plod.
1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 40 He never ceased speaking... In a monotonous tone, he ploughed solemnly onward, oblivious. 1897Flandrau Harvard Episodes 30 He could..fancy himself ploughing doggedly in self-defence through an incredible number of courses in history. 1952C. Bardsley Bishop's Move xi. 119, I almost said ‘plough through’ the Bible. 1959Daily Tel. 23 July 1/6 The Prime Minister..gave the House the impression that he was ploughing, with as much force and gaiety as he could muster, through an almost impenetrable bog. 1978P. Boardman Worlds of P. Geddes xi. 408 One ploughs through the often complicated sentences of P.G.'s writings of 1926–30.
c. intr. Of a road vehicle, train, aeroplane, or the like: to move clumsily or laboriously, usu. at speed; to advance out of control into (or through, etc.) an obstacle.
1972Daily Tel. 29 Dec. 2/5 A three-coach train was derailed..when it ploughed into a herd of cattle at 60 mph. 1973Times 31 Dec. 5/5 The airliner..ploughed to a halt on the runway. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 11 Nov. 16/5 A Southampton lorry driver suffered only cuts and bruises last night when his lorry ploughed through a bridge and plunged 15 feet into a field at Wimborne. 1977Evening Gaz. (Middlesbrough) 11 Jan. 1/9 Police in Cleveland are hunting the driver of a sports car which forced another car to plough into four people.
7. Applied to mechanical processes: cf. plough n.1 5.
a. Bookbinding. To cut with a ‘plough’ or plough-press.
1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 395/2 The cutting press stands on a hollow frame..which..receives the paper shavings as they are ploughed off.
b. Carpentry. To cut or plane (a groove, rabbet) with a ‘plough’. Also intr.
1805[see ploughing 1 b]. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii, The carpenter..was ploughing away at a groove. 1875Carpentry & Join. 104 A groove being ploughed under the over-hanging edge to cause the rain to drip clear of the wall.
c. To cut or gash (mackerel, etc.) so as to give it a better appearance: cf. crimp v.1 4. U.S.
1890in Cent. Dict.
d. Coal Mining. To cut (coal) by means of a plough; to push (coal so obtained) away from the face by means of a plough.
1950Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers CIX. 256 The first train of thought was to plough machine-cut coal on to a face conveyor. 1951H. F. Banks in E. Mason Pract. Coal Mining (ed. 2) I. viii. 123/2 This device carries steel blades which shear or plane off the coal to a limited depth and ploughs it on to the face conveyor. 1964A. Nelson Dict. Mining 335 Hard anthracite is being ploughed with only water infusion to soften the coal.
e. trans. To clear (an area) of snow using a snow-plough.
1961‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) xii. 99 ‘Don't know why they can't plow these streets,’ he muttered as he pulled into the single lane left by the piles of snow. 1978Times 23 Jan. 12/7 There was..slush and compacted snow on roads the ploughs had not reached. It says much for the authorities in West Virginia..that they had ploughed all but about 40 miles of my route. 1979J. van de Wetering Maine Massacre ii. 12 They may not have plowed the strip..last time... I had to circle while they pushed the old plow around.
8. Univ. slang. To reject (a candidate) as not reaching the pass standard in an examination: a slang substitute for pluck in this sense (pluck v. 7).
1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. xi, It's impossible for them to plough me. 1863Reade Hard Cash Prol. 16 That..adds to my chance of being ploughed for smalls... ‘Ploughed’ is the new Oxfordish for ‘plucked’. 1883Times 1 June 4 My young friend was undeservedly ploughed.
9. With advbs.; mostly trans.
a. plough around: lit. in reference to stumps left in cultivated land; fig., to make tentative approaches, feel one's way. U.S. political slang.
1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxx. 557 The more skilful leaders begin (as it is expressed) to ‘plough around’ among the delegations of the newer..States.
b. plough down: to throw or thrust down by ploughing. Also fig.
1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 126 On a part of a field where whins were plowed down. 1877Black Green Past. xxix, Any of which would be ploughed down by this huge vessel.
c. plough in, plough into the land: to embed or bury in the soil (manure, vegetation, etc.) by ploughing. Also fig.
1764Museum Rust. II. 172 When a farmer intends to plow in his vetches, I would..advise him to do it some weeks before he sows his wheat. 1847Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. i. 62 Others spread the dung on the surface and plough it in. 1895B. Sedgwick in Westm. Gaz. 12 Sept. 4/3 He ploughed his capital into the land, and it never came out.
d. plough out: to dig or thrust out (of the ground) with the plough; hence, to disinter, dig out; to root out, eradicate, cast out, tear out, remove with violence; also, to excavate or hollow out by or as by ploughing (cf. 3 b).
1643Milton Divorce ii. xx. Wks. 1851 IV. 118 God loves not to plow out the heart of our endeavours with over-hard and sad tasks. a1645Habington Surv. Worc. in Worc. Hist. Soc. Proc. III. 504 Ploughed out of obscure antiquities I will now use the true name. 1863Lyell Antiq. Man xiv. (ed. 3) 266 A third period when the marine boulder drift formed in the middle period was ploughed out of the larger valleys by a second set of glaciers. 1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 54 These North-American rivers have plowed out channels whose deep walls rise as high as the smoke from the steamers.
e. plough up: to break up (ground) by ploughing; to throw or cast up, eradicate (roots, weeds) with the plough; to cut up roughly, excavate, furrow or scratch deeply, by any similar action.
1588Shakes. Tit. A. iv. ii. 87 Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels vp. 1601Bp. W. Barlow Serm. Paules Crosse 45 For he..hath plowed vp my hart. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. xii. 38 Let Patient Octavia plough thy visage vp With her prepared nailes. 1718Lowth Comm. Jer. iv. 3 The Prophet..exhorts them to Repentance and Reformation under the Metaphor of Plowing up their fallow Ground. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 172 The wild boar plows it [the earth] up like a furrow, and does irreparable damage in the cultivated lands. 1817W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 1245 If..the owner of a close over which there is a right of way plough up the way, and assign a new way. a1895Ld. C. E. Paget Autobiog. i. (1896) 8 Her decks were literally ploughed up with grape shot.
f. plough under: to bury in the soil by ploughing.
1900Year-Bk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 379 If crimson clover is grown, it should be plowed under rather early in the spring to get the best results. 1979Country Life 6 Dec. 2141 The express way will bypass the old road..ploughing under landmarks that meant much to people.
g. plough back: to invest (income or profit) in the enterprise from which it emanates.
1930Economist 24 May 1172/2 The extensive resort of American managements to the practice of ‘ploughing back earnings into the business’ further emphasises this tendency. 1945Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 25 Oct. 6/3 The proposed act would limit the annual dividends of such corporations to 6 per cent, requiring that all additional profits would have to be ‘plowed back’ into redevelopment. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 26 Jan. 12/3 Profits are being plowed back into industry at unprecedented rates. 1955Times 1 July 17/3 The profits that have accrued from this company have been largely ploughed back for further development and expansion. 1965Listener 23 Dec. 1023/1 It was not long before we had functioning money-raising sweet shops, bargain stores—and the ‘Green Dragon’. Profits were all ploughed back. 1970Physics Bull. Mar. 99/2 For the services it renders the Centre charges small fees which are ploughed back into its operations. By this means it is planned to be selfsupporting within three years. 1974N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 96 We ploughed every penny back for ten years. 1976Milton Keynes Express 30 July 11/4 He would not consider ploughing some of the {pstlg}4 million back into the services and said he hoped the kitty would increase.
10. Phrases.
a. to plough with any one's heifer (ox, † calf) after Judges xiv. 18. See also heifer 1 b. (In quot. 1632, app. to be yoked together with.)
1535Coverdale Judg. xiv. 18 Yf ye had not plowed with my calfe [1611 heifer], ye shulde not haue founde out my ryddle. 1584G. B. Beware the Cat Ded., I doubt whether M. Stremer will be contented that other men ploughe with his oxen. 1632Massinger City Madam ii. iii, I will under⁓take To find the north passage to the Indies sooner Than plough with your proud heifer.
b. to plough the sands: a frequent type of fruitless labour. Also to plough the air.
1590Greene Never too late Wks. (Grosart) VIII. 166 With sweating browes I long haue plowde the sands..Repent hath sent me home with emptie hands. 1647Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. Ep. Ded. 5 That I had as good plow the Sands, or till the Aire, as perswade such Doctrines, which destroy mens interests. 1775Wesley Jrnl. 15 Nov., I preached at Dorking. But still I fear we are ploughing upon the sand: we see no fruit of our labours. 1894Asquith Sp. at Birmingham 21 Nov., All our time, all our labour, and all our assiduity is as certain to be thrown away as if you were to plough the sands of the seashore, the moment that the Bill reaches the Upper Chamber.
Hence ploughed, plowed ppl. a.: also, (in sense 9 g) ploughed-back; ploughed-out, obscured or destroyed by ploughing; (in sense 9 e) ploughed-up (in quot. fig.). Also (in sense 9 g) ploughing-back vbl. n.
1535Coverdale Jer. iv. 26 The plowed felde was become waist. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. ii. (1848) 173 We began to traverse certain plow'd Lands. 1759B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. Herts. 15 The Surface of every Plowed Field. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 619 When ploughed lands are to be laid down for meadow or pasture. 1920J. Masefield Enslaved 120 From these ploughed-up souls the spirit brings Harvest at last. 1931Economist 18 July 128/1 Reserves against remote contingencies, and those representing the ‘ploughing back’ of earnings into the business, should be set aside openly. 1944J. S. Huxley On living in Revol. xii. 130 This compulsory ploughing-back of any excess profits is essential if the development of the area is to proceed at a reasonable rate. 1950Oxoniensia XV. 7 Ploughed-out field-systems appear on air-photographs as a network of white lines which can often be recognized to some extent on the ground by bands of broken chalk and flints. 1957Times 12 Dec. 18/1 Additional capital..has been injected into the business..in the form of ploughed-back profits. 1958Spectator 18 July 117/3 It is finding about 85 per cent. of its capital through ploughed-back profits. 1959Manch. Guardian 7 Aug. 1/2 The suggestion that a reduction in selling prices might, in present circumstances, take precedence over the ploughing back of profits. 1974C. Taylor Fieldwork in Medieval Archaeol. iv. 74 The discovery of Iron Age and Roman sherds scattered on a spur above the River Nene near Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, led to the identification of ramparts round this spur as part of a ploughed out ‘hill fort’. 1977Interim IV. iv. 4 Then the light marks over ploughed-out walls or banks..provide..an accurate deliniation of landscape elements.
Add: ploughed ppl. a.: also, drunk (slang, chiefly U.S.).
1890Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 138/2 Ploughed (common), drunk. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 174 One who is in the more extreme states of drunkenness is referred to as: plowed. 1985G. V. Higgins Penance for Jerry Kennedy xxvi. 208, I did not get drunk... You and Frank did. You got absolutely plowed. |