<B>planter, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who owns or runs a plantation. <BR> <I>Ex. a cotton planter. One of the most considerable planters in the Brazils (Daniel Defoe).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a machine for planting. <BR> <I>Ex. a corn planter.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a person who plants. <DD><B> 4. </B>an early settler; colonist. <DD><B> 5. </B>a box, stand, or other holder, usually decorative, for house plants. <BR> <I>Ex. Hand-crafted, copper bound redwood planters in three smart shapes (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="planterspunch">
<B>planter's punch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a sweet punch made with rum and flavored with lemon or lime juice. </DL>
<A NAME="plantfood">
<B>plant food,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any natural or chemical fertilizer. </DL>
<A NAME="planthopper">
<B>plant hopper,</B> <B>=lantern fly.</B></DL>
<A NAME="planthormone">
<B>plant hormone,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a group of substances that affect the growth of plants, including auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisic acid, and ethylene. </DL>
<A NAME="plantibody">
<B>plantibody, </B>noun, pl. <B>-bodies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an antibody produced in a plant by genetic engineering. <BR> <I>Ex. To further the cancer-fighting prospects of plantibodies, the researchers now are working ... in an attempt to put genes for human-tumor-attacking antibodies into plant cells (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plantigrade">
<B>plantigrade, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> walking on the whole sole of the foot, as bears, raccoons, and men do. <DD><I>noun </I> a plantigrade animal. </DL>
<A NAME="plantimal">
<B>plantimal, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a living cell or organism formed by the fusion of animal and plant cells. <BR> <I>Ex. Three separate research groups have now successfully fused animal cells with plant cells to form the first ... "plantimals" (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plantin">
<B>Plantin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a printing type of the old style, popular in Europe, based on the designs of the French printer Christophe Plantin, 1520-1589. </DL>
<A NAME="plantkingdom">
<B>plant kingdom,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> all plants, as distinguished from animals and minerals; vegetable kingdom. </DL>
<A NAME="plantlet">
<B>plantlet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an undeveloped or rudimentary plant. <DD><B> 2. </B>a small plant. </DL>
<A NAME="plantlouse">
<B>plant louse,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an aphid or related insect which sucks juices from plants. </DL>
<A NAME="plantocracy">
<B>plantocracy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-cies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>government by planters. <DD><B> 2. </B>plantation owners as a class. <BR> <I>Ex. From sugar, rum, coffee, and slavery, a rich plantocracy grew (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plantpathologist">
<B>plant pathologist,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an expert in plant pathology. </DL>
<A NAME="plantpathology">
<B>plant pathology,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the study of plant diseases and their treatment. </DL>
<A NAME="plantphysiology">
<B>plant physiology,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the scientific study of the life processes or functions of plants. </DL>
<A NAME="plantsman">
<B>plantsman, </B>noun, pl. <B>-men.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a nurseryman or florist. </DL>
<A NAME="planula">
<B>planula, </B>noun, pl. <B>-lae.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the flat, ciliated, free-swimming larva of a coelenterate. </DL>
<A NAME="planular">
<B>planular, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of flattened form. <DD><B> 2. </B>having to do with a planula or like a planula. </DL>
<B>plaque, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an ornamental tablet of metal, porcelain, plastic, or wood, intended to be hung up as a wall decoration or to be fixed to something, such as a piece of furniture. <BR> <I>Ex. Gregory Jackson ... presented to the Cardinal a plaque (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a platelike ornament or badge, especially one worn as the badge of an honorary order. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Anatomy.) a small, flat discoidal formation, such as a blood platelet. <BR> <I>Ex. The accumulation of cholesterol in the blood vessels forms plaques which may eventually restrict the flow of blood (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a gelatinous deposit formed on the surface of teeth by food debris and bacteria. <BR> <I>Ex. Tartar begins as plaque, a film on your teeth that quickly hardens into this tough, cementlike substance (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plaquette">
<B>plaquette, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small plaque. </DL>
<A NAME="plash">
<B>plash</B> (1), verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> to splash. <BR> <I>Ex. Far below him plashed the waters (Longfellow).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a splash. <BR> <I>Ex. the plash and murmur of the waves (Hawthorne).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a shallow piece of standing water; puddle. <BR> <I>Ex. As he that leaves A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Scottish.) a heavy fall of rain. </DL>
<A NAME="plash">
<B>plash</B> (2), transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to bend and interweave (stems, branches, and twigs, sometimes partly cut) to form a hedge. <DD><B> 2. </B>to make or repair (a hedge) in this way. noun <B>plasher.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="plashy">
<B>plashy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>abounding in pools of water; marshy; wet. <BR> <I>Ex. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake? (William Cullen Bryant).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>plashing or splashing. <DD><B> 3. </B>marked as if splashed with color. <BR> <I>Ex. a serpent's plashy neck (Keats).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plasm">
<B>plasm, </B>noun. <B>=plasma.</B></DL>
<A NAME="plasma">
<B>plasma, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the clear, almost colorless liquid part of blood or lymph, in which the corpuscles or blood cells float. It consists of water, salts, proteins, and other substances, and it makes up the largest part of the blood. Plasma can be kept indefinitely by freezing or drying and is often used in transfusions in place of whole blood. <BR> <I>Ex. In the capillaries some of the liquid part of the blood, the plasma, oozes through the walls into the spaces surrounding the cells (Beauchamp, Mayfield, and West).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Physiology.) the fluid contained in muscle tissue; muscle plasma. <DD><B> 3. </B>the watery part of milk, as distinguished from the globules of fat. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Biology.) protoplasm, especially the general body of protoplasm as distinct from the nucleus. <DD><B> 5. </B>(Physics.) a highly ionized gas, consisting of almost equal numbers of free electrons and positive ions (atomic nuclei lacking their electron shells). <DD><B> 6. </B>a faintly translucent, green variety of quartz, much used in ancient times for ornaments. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmaarcwelding">
<B>plasma arc welding,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> arc welding using the extremely high temperatures of a plasma jet to weld metal. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmablast">
<B>plasmablast, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the parent or stem cell of a plasma cell. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmacell">
<B>plasma cell,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a mononuclear cell that produces antibodies in chronically inflamed connective tissue. </DL>
<B>plasmagene, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a minute particle or element found in the cytoplasm of certain microorganisms, insects, and plants. It is regarded as being a hereditary factor corresponding in function to the genes found in the chromosome. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmajet">
<B>plasma jet,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a jet of highly ionized gas. <BR> <I>Ex. Plasma jets, the white-hot streams of gas used for such tasks as cutting and welding (Science News).</I> </DL>
<B>plasma membrane,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the thin membrane that forms the outer surface of the protoplasm of a cell; cell membrane. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmapause">
<B>plasmapause, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the upper limits of the region above the atmosphere that contain layers of highly ionized gas. <BR> <I>Ex. The spacecraft will be far beyond the plasmapause, the outer boundary of the ionosphere, and beyond the magnetosphere for most of the time (Science Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plasmapheresis">
<B>plasmapheresis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the removal of blood from the body and the separation, by centrifugation, of the plasma from the cells, which are then washed in a saline solution and returned to the blood stream. This process is used to obtain plasma, as well as to treat certain pathological conditions. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmaphysicist">
<B>plasma physicist,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person who studies plasma physics. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmaphysics">
<B>plasma physics,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a branch of physics dealing with highly ionized gas, especially as it appears in a wide range of cosmic phenomena and as it is used in controlled thermonuclear reactions. <BR> <I>Ex. Plasma physics owes much to astronomical studies of the motions of ionized and magnetized solar gases (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="plasmasphere">
<B>plasmasphere, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an envelope of highly ionized gas about a planet. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmatic">
<B>plasmatic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of plasma; containing plasma; like plasma. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmatorch">
<B>plasma torch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a device that produces plasma jets for vaporizing, melting, or reducing any substance, such as metal or waste products. </DL>
<B>plasmid, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a genetic element which replicates in the cells independently of the chromosomes, used especially in recombinant DNA research; plasmagene. </DL>
<A NAME="plasmin">
<B>plasmin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an enzyme in the blood which can dissolve blood clots; fibrinolysin. </DL>
<A NAME="plasminogen">
<B>plasminogen, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the inactive form of plasmin; profibrinolysin. </DL>
<B>plasmodesmata, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> narrow strands of cytoplasm in plant cells that form connections between the plasma membranes of adjacent cells. <BR> <I>Ex. The existence of plasmodesmata in green plants is well known, and appears to be universal (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
