plough

noun

tool or farm implement

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verb

make a furrow in the ground

L18156 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /plaʊ/

name

Etymology: From plough, a metonymic occupational surname for a plowwright or plowman.

A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.

A device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting.
“Meronyms: ploughshare, plowshare, share, moldboard, mouldboard, coulter, colter, jointer, chisel, ploughbeam, beam, ploughstaff, staff, hake”
“The horse-drawn plough had a tremendous impact on agriculture.”
Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material.
“It's been three hours since a plough came through here, and now you can hardly even tell that it did! [the snow keeps falling heavily]”
Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material.
Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material.
The use of a plough; tillage.
“If you get it early ploughed and it lies all winter possibly, you find it an advantage to give it a second plough; but it does not invariably follow that we plough twice for our green crop.”
Alternative form of Plough (Synonym of Ursa Major)
“Rising in the north-east fairly high in the sky, Arcturus may be found by following round the curve of the plough.”
“To many generations of rice farmers in rural Java, Indonesia, it was not the stars of Ursa Major that formed the plough, but the stars of Orion.”
Alternative form of ploughland, an alternative name for a carucate or hide.
“c. 1350, Geoffrey Chaucer (attributed), The Tale of Gamelyn Johan, mine eldest son, shall have plowes five.”
A yoga pose resembling a traditional plough, halāsana.

verb

To use a plough on soil to prepare for planting.
“I've still got to plough that field.”
“That there is and from time immemorial has been within that part of the parish called Mablethorpe St. Mary's a laudable custom that, if any outdweller take ancient pasture ground, he shall pay a modus of 4d. an acre, and so in proportion, on the 1st of August, in lieu of all manner of tithe; and that if any of the ancient pasture be once ploughed up or meadowed, it shall, when restored to pasture again, pay 4d. the acre in the hands of such outdweller.”
To use a plough.
“Some days I have to plough from sunrise to sunset.”
To move with force.
“Trucks ploughed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.”
“Wolves continued to plough forward as young Belgian midfielder Mujangi Bia and Ronald Zubar both hit shots wide from good positions.”
To knock over or run over (someone) without stopping.
“My brother ploughed me over.”
“Three people were ploughed down when he lost control of the truck.”
To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in.
“Let patient Octavia plough thy visage up / With her prepared nails.”
To run through, as in sailing.
“With speed we plough the watery way.”
To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plough.
To cut a groove in, as in a plank, or the edge of a board; especially, a rectangular groove to receive the end of a shelf or tread, the edge of a panel, a tongue, etc.
To fail (a student).
“The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either gulfed or ploughed.”
“You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination consists of several items: neglect but one, and Crichton himself would be ploughed; because brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to count; that is how the most distinguished man of our day got ploughed for Smalls.”
To sexually penetrate, typically in a vigorous manner.
“I love just getting ploughed face down on my bed.”
“If you don't use rubbers when you're plowing someone's throat, don't bother answering this ad.”