English
plate
see also: Plate
Pronunciation
  • enPR: plāt, IPA: /pleɪt/, [pʰl̥eɪt]
Noun

plate (plural plates)

  1. A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.
    I filled my plate from the bountiful table.
  2. (uncountable) Such dishes collectively.
  3. The contents of such a dish.
    I ate a plate of beans.
  4. A course at a meal.
    The meat plate was particularly tasty.
  5. (figuratively) An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities
    With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.
  6. A flat metallic object of uniform thickness.
    A clutch usually has two plates.
  7. A vehicle license plate.
    He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.
  8. A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating
    The bullets just bounced off the steel plate on its hull.
  9. A material covered with such a layer.
    If you're not careful, someone will sell you silverware that's really only silver plate.
  10. (dated) A decorative or food service item coated with silver or gold.
    The tea was served in the plate.
  11. (weightlifting) A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine.
  12. (printing) An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.
    We finished making the plates this morning.
  13. (printing, photography) An image or copy.
  14. (printing, publishing) An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages.
  15. (dentistry) A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate.
  16. (construction) A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs.
  17. (Cockney rhyming slang) A foot, from "plates of meat".
    Sit down and give your plates a rest.
  18. (baseball) Home plate.
    There was a close play at the plate.
  19. (geology) A tectonic plate.
  20. (historical) Plate armour.
    He was confronted by two knights in full plate.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Canto 5, p. 248,
      He hewd, and lasht, and foynd, and thondred blowes,
      And euery way did seeke into his life,
      Ne plate, ne male could ward so mighty throwes,
      But yeilded passage to his cruell knife.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 6, lines 366-368,
      Two potent Thrones, that to be less then Gods
      Disdain’d, but meaner thoughts learnd in thir flight,
      Mangl’d with gastly wounds through Plate and Maile.
  21. (herpetology) Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles.
  22. (engineering, electricity) A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank.
  23. (engineering, electricity) The anode of a vacuum tube.
    Regulating the oscillator plate voltage greatly improves the keying.
  24. (obsolete) Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes (from Spanish plata).
    • circa 1606 William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2,
      […] realms and islands were
      As plates dropp’d from his pocket.
  25. (heraldic charge) A roundel of silver or tinctured argent.
  26. A prize given to the winner in a contest.
  27. (chemistry) Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic.
  28. (aviation, travel industry, dated) A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code.
  29. (aviation, travel industry, by extension) The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline.
  30. (Australia) A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture.
  31. One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal.
  32. A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses.
  33. (furriers' slang) Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted.
  34. (hat-making) The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material.
  35. (music) A record, usually vinyl.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Russian: плита́
Translations
  • French: armure de plates
  • Spanish: armadura
Translations Translations
  • Russian: ано́д
Translations Verb

plate (plates, present participle plating; past and past participle plated)

  1. To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.
    This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.
  2. To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.
    After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.
  3. (baseball) To score a run.
    The single plated the runner from second base.
  4. (transitive) To arm or defend with metal plates.
  5. (transitive) To beat into thin plates.
  6. (aviation, travel industry) To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of.
    Tickets are normally plated on an itinerary's first international airline.
  7. (philately) to categorise stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.
  8. (philately) (particularly with early British stamps) to identify the printing plate used.
Translations Translations Noun

plate (uncountable)

  1. Precious metal, especially silver.
    • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast
      At the northern extremity of this chill province the gold plate of the Groans, pranked across the shining black of the long table, smoulders as though it contains fire […]
Plate
Proper noun
  1. The River Plate.
    • 1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia conducted by David Brewster, volume 17, page 288:
      […] ; but the tributary waters of the Plate issuing from the eastern and western plateaus, flow towards each other, unite in the heart of the continent, and continue over the central plain to the Atlantic.
    • 2004, Dudley Pope, The Battle Of The River Plate: The Hunt For The German Pocket Battleship Graf Spree, page 184: translating a telegram sent in 1939 to the German Foreign Office:
      It would be preferable in view of the shortage of ammunition to blow her up in the shallow waters of the Plate and to have the crew interned.


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