Plane — Defs

01 n. Any tree of the genus Platanus.

1.
Any tree of the genus Platanus.(Bot.)

02 a. Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface.

1.
Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface.

Phrases & compounds

Plane angle — the angle included between two straight lines in a plane.

Plane chart — See under Chart and Curve.

Plane figure — a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure.

Plane geometry — that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures.

Plane problem — a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only.

Plane sailing — the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane.

Plane scale — a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc.

Plane surveying — surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent.

Plane table — an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field.

Plane trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles.

03 n. A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a s…

1.
A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.(Geom.)
2.
An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.(Astron.)
3.
A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.(Mech.)
4.
A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc.(Joinery)

Phrases & compounds

Objective plane — the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand.

Perspective plane — See Perspective.

Plane at infinity — a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated.

Plane iron — the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane.

Plane of polarization — See Polarization.

Plane of projection — The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; -- called also principal plane.

Plane of refraction — the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

04 v. t. To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, …

imp. & p. p. Planed; p. pr. & vb. n. Planing

1.
To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, to plane a plank.
2.
To efface or remove.
“He planed away the names . . . written on his tables.” — Chaucer.
3.
Figuratively, to make plain or smooth.[R.]
“What student came but that you planed her path.” — Tennyson.

05 v. i. Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.

1.
Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.