English
place
see also: Place
Pronunciation
  • (RP, America) enPR: plās, IPA: /pleɪs/, [pl̥eɪs]
Etymology 1

From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæse, plætse, plæċe and Old French place, both from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα, shortening of πλατεῖα ὁδός, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂-, extended form of *pleh₂-.

Noun

place

  1. (physical) An area; somewhere within an area.
    1. An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
      • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:
        Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place
    2. (often, in street names or addresses) A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.
      They live at Westminster Place.
    3. An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
    4. Any area of the earth: a region.
      He is going back to his native place on vacation.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
        From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    5. The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
      We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
    6. The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
      • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC ↗:
        My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she calls, in familiar conversation, her "place" in Lincolnshire.
      Do you want to come over to my place later?
    7. An area of the body, especially the skin.
      Which place hurts the most?
    8. (euphemism slang) An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
    9. (obsolete) An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
  2. A location or position in space.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene v]:
      In that same place thou hast appointed me,
      To-morrow truly will I meete with thee.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
      What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
  3. A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader.
  4. (obsolete) A passage or extract from a book or document.
  5. (obsolete, rhetoric) A topic.
  6. A state of mind.
    I'm in a strange place at the moment.
  7. (chess, obsolete) A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
  8. (social) A responsibility or position in an organization.
    1. A role or purpose; a station.
      It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
      • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene v]:
        I know my place as I would they should do theirs.
      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
        Escalus.Esc.I shall desire you, Sir, to giue me leaue
        To haue free speech with you; and it concernes me
        To looke into the bottome of my place :
        A powre I haue, but of what strength and nature,
        I am not yet instructed.
      • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC ↗:
        Men in great place are thrice servants.
    2. The position of a contestant in a competition.
      We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
    3. (horse racing) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.
      to win a bet on a horse for place
    4. The position as a member of a sports team.
      He lost his place in the national team.
  9. (obsolete) A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
  10. Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
    three decimal places;  the hundreds place
  11. Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
    That's what I said in the first place!
    • a. 1788, Mather Byles, quoted in The Life of James Otis by William Tudor
      In the first place, I do not understand politics; in the second place, you all do, every man and mother's son of you; in the third place, you have politics all the week, pray let one day in the seven be devoted to religion […]
  12. Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, John 8:37 ↗:
      My word hath no place in you.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: mentalidade
Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English placen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

place (places, present participle placing; simple past and past participle placed)

  1. (transitive) To put (someone or something) in a specific location.
    Synonyms: lay, lay down, put down, set down, deposit
    He placed the glass on the table.
    to place someone on a pedestal
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 28, page 53 ↗:
      His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaſte, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled ſhoes hee vvare, […]
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XIX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
      Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
  2. (ergative) To earn a given spot in a competition; to rank at a certain position ((often followed by an ordinal)).
    The Cowboys placed third in the league.
    Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.
    1. (intransitive, racing) To finish second, especially of horses or dogs.
      In the third race: Aces Up won, paying eight dollars; Blarney Stone placed, paying three dollars; and Cinnamon showed, paying five dollars.
  3. (transitive) To remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered.
    I've seen him before, but I can't quite place where.
  4. (transitive) To vouch for someone's alibi.
    The librarian was placed at home by her neighbor at the time of the murder.
  5. (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.
    Synonyms: reach
  6. (transitive, in collocations) To make.
    to place a call
    to place an order
    to place an ad in the newspaper
    to place a bid
    to place a bet
    to place a wager
  7. (transitive) To bet.
    I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.
  8. (transitive) To recruit or match an appropriate person for a job, or a home for an animal for adoption, etc.
    They phoned hoping to place her in the management team.
  9. (sports, transitive) To place-kick (a goal).
  10. (transitive) To assign (more or less value) to something.
    My workplace places a high premium on team spirit.
    She places little value on religion.
Conjugation
Conjugation of place

infinitive (to) place
present tense past tense
1st-person singular place placed
2nd-person singular

 place, placest†

 placed, placedst†
3rd-person singular

 places, placeth†

 placed
plural

 place

subjunctive

 place

placed
imperative

 place

—
participles

 placing

 placed, yplaced†

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: lembrar-se
  • Spanish: situar
Translations Translations Translations Translations
Place
Proper noun
  1. Surname.


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