plain

adjective

1. 1

   archaicFlat, level.

   The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

   The Vampyre Bat. Tailless bat with the nose plain, and the flying-membrane divided between the thighs.

2. 2

   Simple, unaltered. Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.

   He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.

   a plain tune

   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

3. 3

   Simple, unaltered. Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

   a plain pink polycotton skirt

4. 4

   Simple, unaltered. Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.

   They're just plain people like you or me.

   plain yet pious Christians

   the plain people

5. 5

   Simple, unaltered. Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.

   Would you like a poppy bagel or a plain bagel?

6. 6

   Simple, unaltered. Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).

7. 7

   Obvious. Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.

   In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, this Abbot, it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

8. 8

   Obvious. Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).

   His answer was just plain nonsense.

9. 9

   Open. Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.

   Let me be plain with you: I don't like her.

   [VV]e are able with playne demonſtration to proue, and vvith reaſon to perſvvade that in tymes paſt our fayth vvas alike, that then vve preached thinges correſpondent vnto the forme of faith already published of vs, ſo that none in this behalfe can repyne or gaynesay vs.

   an honest mind, and plain, he must speak truth

   The Quaker was no sooner assured by this fellow of the birth and low fortune of Jones, than all compassion for him vanished; and the honest plain man went home fired with no less indignation than a duke would have felt at receiving an affront from such a person.

10. 10

    Open. Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.

    Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

11. 11

    Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.

    Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.

    Up to that time the girl had never really done her hair, and she regarded boots merely as things to protect the feet. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was considered plain and that she diffused an atmosphere of intellectual frost.

12. 12

    Not a trump.

adverb

1. 1

   Simply.

   It was just plain stupid.

   I plain forgot.

   One trouble, he explained, is that dope pushers flock to neighborhoods where two gangs are at war, knowing they will find buyers among members of the gangs who are so keyed up that they welcome any kind of relaxation or who are just plain afraid.

2. 2

   archaicPlainly; distinctly.

   Tell me plain: do you love me or no?

noun

1. 1

   An expanse of land with relatively low relief and few trees, especially a grassy expanse.

   Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain.

   1961, J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato. In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467. For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains, in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

2. 2

   A broad, flat expanse in general, as of water.

   Fair ship, that from the Italian shore, ⁠Sailest the placid ocean-plains ⁠With my lost Arthur’s loved remains, Spread thy full wings, and waft him o’er.

3. 3

   archaicSynonym of field in reference to a battlefield.

   You have stormed no town and found the money there ; neither did you find it in the plains of Plassey after the defeat of the Nawab

   Lead forth my soldiers to the plain.

4. 4

   Variant of planeobsoleteAlternative spelling of plane: a flat geometric field.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.

   Frownst thou thereat aspiring Lancaster, The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,

   We would rake Europe rather, plain the East;

2. 2

   obsoleteTo make plain or manifest; to explain.

   What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.

noun

1. 1

   rareA lamentation.

   The warrior-threat, the infant's plain, The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo complain.

   Persones and parisch prestes · pleyned hem to þe bischop / Þat here parisshes were pore · sith þe pestilence tyme […].

2. 2

   archaicTo lament, bewail.

   to plain a loss

   Shepheards, that wont[…] Oft times to plaine your loves concealed smart

   Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set Her husband's rusty iron corselet; Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, That never plain'd of his uneasy nest.

   Then, again, she almost thought that the soft and wailing wind which swept mournfully through the sepulchral boughs of the large old yews, had a voice not of this world—was it the inarticulate plaining of her brother's gentle spirit, debarred from intercourse, but still keeping over her the deep and eternal watch of love?

adjective

1. 1

   obsoleteFull, complete in number or extent.

Forms

plural

plains

comparative

plainer

superlative

plainest

past tense

plained

past participle

plained

present participle

plaining

third person singular

plains