Word Meanings - PLANK - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. See Board. 2. Fig.: That which supports or upholds, as a board does a swimmer. His charity is a better plank than the faith of an intolerant and bitter-minded bigot.

Additional info about word: PLANK

1. A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. See Board. 2. Fig.: That which supports or upholds, as a board does a swimmer. His charity is a better plank than the faith of an intolerant and bitter-minded bigot. Southey. 3. One of the separate articles in a declaration of the principles of a party or cause; as, a plank in the national platform. Plank road, or Plank way, a road surface formed of planks. -- To walk the plank, to walk along a plank laid across the bulwark of a ship, until one overbalances it and falls into the sea; -- a method of disposing of captives practiced by pirates.

Related words: (words related to PLANK)

• BELLMAN
  A man who rings a bell, especially to give notice of anything in the streets. Formerly, also, a night watchman who called the hours. Milton.
• BESCRATCH
  To tear with the nails; to cover with scratches.
• BELIAL
  An evil spirit; a wicked and unprincipled person; the personification of evil. What concord hath Christ with Belia 2 Cor. vi. 15. A son of Belial, a worthless, wicked, or thoroughly depraved person. 1 Sam. ii. 12.
• BEASTLIHEAD
  Beastliness. Spenser.
• BEWRAP
  To wrap up; to cover. Fairfax.
• BERGOMASK
  A rustic dance, so called in ridicule of the people of Bergamo, in Italy, once noted for their clownishness.
• PLANKING
  1. The act of laying planks; also, planks, collectively; a series of planks in place, as the wooden covering of the frame of a vessel. 2. The act of splicing slivers. See Plank, v. t., 4.
• BEVELMENT
  The replacement of an edge by two similar planes, equally inclined to the including faces or adjacent planes.
• BELEAVE
  To leave or to be left. May.
• BESCATTER
  1. To scatter over. 2. To cover sparsely by scattering ; to strew. "With flowers bescattered." Spenser.
• BETSO
  A small brass Venetian coin.
• BESCORN
  To treat with scorn. "Then was he bescorned." Chaucer.
• BECHE DE MER
  The trepang.
• BETOKEN
  1. To signify by some visible object; to show by signs or tokens. A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow . . . Betokening peace from God, and covenant new. Milton. 2. To foreshow by present signs; to indicate something future by that which is seen
• BELLADONNA
  An herbaceous European plant with reddish bell-shaped flowers and shining black berries. The whole plant and its fruit are very poisonous, and the root and leaves are used as powerful medicinal agents. Its properties are largely due
• BETROTHAL
  The act of betrothing, or the fact of being betrothed; a mutual promise, engagement, or contract for a future marriage between the persons betrothed; betrothment; affiance. "The feast of betrothal." Longfellow.
• BESLUBBER
  To beslobber.
• BENIM
  To take away. Ire . . . benimeth the man fro God. Chaucer.
• BESIEGER
  One who besieges; -- opposed to the besieged.
• SAWDUST
  Dust or small fragments of wood 9or of stone, etc.) made by the cutting of a saw.
• COMBER
  1. One who combs; one whose occupation it is to comb wool, flax, etc. Also, a machine for combing wool, flax, etc. 2. A long, curling wave.
• GABBER
  1. A liar; a deceiver. 2. One addicted to idle talk.
• HAIRBELL
  See HAREBELL
• ORBED
  Having the form of an orb; round. The orbèd eyelids are let down. Trench.
• GERBE
  A kind of ornamental firework. Farrow.
• LAMBERT PINE
  The gigantic sugar pine of California and Oregon (Pinus Lambertiana). It has the leaves in fives, and cones a foot long. The timber is soft, and like that of the white pine of the Eastern States.
• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• GABELER
  A collector of gabels or taxes.
• ABERRATE
  To go astray; to diverge. Their own defective and aberrating vision. De Quincey.
• CORYMBED
  Corymbose.