Part 347

Here my inviolable faith I plight.

Dryden.

2. To promise; to engage; to betroth.

Before its setting hour, divide The bridegroom from the plighted bride.

Sir W. Scott.

Plight"er (?), n. One who, or that which, plights.

Plim (?), v. i. [Cf. Plump.] To swell, as grain or wood with water. [Prov. Eng.] Grose.

Plim"soll's mark` (?). (Naut.) A mark conspicuously painted on the port side of all British sea-going merchant vessels, to indicate the limit of submergence allowed by law; -- so called from Samuel Plimsoll, by whose efforts the act of Parliament to prevent overloading was procured.

Plinth (?), n. [L. plinthus, Gr. &?; a brick or tile, a plinth, perh. akin to E. flint: cf. F. plinthe.] (Arch.) In classical architecture, a vertically faced member immediately below the circular base of a column; also, the lowest member of a pedestal; hence, in general, the lowest member of a base; a sub-base; a block upon which the moldings of an architrave or trim are stopped at the bottom. See Illust. of Column.

Pli"o*cene (?), a. [Written also pleiocene.] [Gr. &?; more + &?; new, recent.] (Geol.) Of, pertaining to, or characterizing, the most recent division of the Tertiary age.

Pli"o*cene, n. (Geol.) The Pliocene period or deposits.

||Pli`o*hip"pus (?), n. [NL., fr. E. pliocene + Gr. &?; horse.] ||(Paleon.) An extinct genus of horses from the Pliocene deposits. Each ||foot had a single toe (or hoof), as in the common horse.

||Pli`o*sau"rus (?), n. [NL., from Gr. &?; greater + &?; lizard.] ||(Paleon.) An extinct genus of marine reptiles allied to Plesiosaurus, ||but having a much shorter neck.

Plitt (?), n. [Russ. plete.] An instrument of punishment or torture resembling the knout, used in Russia.

Ploc (?), n. [F.] (Naut.) A mixture of hair and tar for covering the bottom of a ship.

||Plo"ce (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?; complication, fr. &?; to entwine.] ||(Rhet.) A figure in which a word is separated or repeated by way of ||emphasis, so as not only to signify the individual thing denoted by ||it, but also its peculiar attribute or quality; as, "His wife's a ||wife indeed." Bailey.

Plod (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Plodded (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Plodding.] [Gf. Gael. plod a clod, a pool; also, to strike or pelt with a clod or clods.] 1. To travel slowly but steadily; to trudge. Shak.

2. To toil; to drudge; especially, to study laboriously and patiently. "Plodding schoolmen." Drayton.

Plod, v. t. To walk on slowly or heavily.

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.

Gray.

Plod"der (?), n. One who plods; a drudge.

Plod"ding (?), a. Progressing in a slow, toilsome manner; characterized by laborious diligence; as, a plodding peddler; a plodding student; a man of plodding habits. --Plod"ding*ly, adv.

Plonge (?), v. t. [See Plunge.] To cleanse, as open drains which are entered by the tide, by stirring up the sediment when the tide ebbs.

||Plon`gÈe" (?), n. [F. See Plunge.] (Mil.) A slope or sloping toward ||the front; as, the plongÈe of a parapet; the plongÈe of a shell in ||its course. [Sometimes written plonge.]

Plot (?), n. [AS. plot; cf. Goth. plats a patch. Cf. Plat a piece of ground.] 1. A small extent of ground; a plat; as, a garden plot. Shak.

2. A plantation laid out. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

3. (Surv.) A plan or draught of a field, farm, estate, etc., drawn to a scale.