place

plural places · alternative pleace

1. An area; somewhere within an area.
   1. countablephysicaluncountableAn open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.

      Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place

      c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]

      Synonyms: courtyard, piazza, plaza, square

   2. countableoftenphysicaluncountableA street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.

      They live at Westminster Place.

   3. countablephysicaluncountableAn inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
   4. countablephysicaluncountableAny area of the earth: a region.

      He is going back to his native place on vacation.

      1 more example

      From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.

      1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   5. countablephysicaluncountableThe area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.

      We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.

      Synonyms: seat

   6. countablephysicaluncountableThe area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.

      Do you want to come over to my place later?

      1 more example

      My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she calls, in familiar conversation, her "place" in Lincolnshire.

      1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC

   7. countablephysicaluncountableAn area of the body, especially the skin.

      Which place hurts the most?

   8. colloquialcountabledatedeuphemisticphysicaluncountableAn area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.

      Place,... (2) a jakes, or house of ease.

      1901, John Stephen Farmer et al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, volume V, page 220

      1 more example

      ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’... ‘She means the little girls room.’

      1951, William Styron, chapter II, in Lie Down in Darkness, page 59

      Synonyms: bathroom

   9. countableobsoletephysicaluncountableAn area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
2. countableuncountableA location or position in space.

   I'll check places I think she might be.

   4 more examples

   In that same place thou hast appointed me, To-morrow truly will I meete with thee.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]

   What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?

   1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.

   1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court

3. countableuncountableProper or usual position.

   A place for everything, and everything in its place.

4. countableuncountableA particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader

   I lost my place when you interrupted me.

5. countableobsoleteuncountableA passage or extract from a book or document.
6. countableobsoleterhetoricuncountableA topic.
7. countableuncountableA state of mind.

   I'm in a strange place at the moment.

   Synonyms: frame of mind, mindset, mood

8. countableobsoleteuncountableboard gamesA chess position; a square of the chessboard.
9. A responsibility or position in an organization.
   1. countableuncountablesocialA role or purpose; a station.

      It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.

      4 more examples

      I know my place as I would they should do theirs.

      c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]

      Escalus.Esc.I shall desire you, Sir, to giue me leaue To haue free speech with you; and it concernes me To looke into the bottome of my place : A powre I haue, but of what strength and nature, I am not yet instructed.

      c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

      Men in great place are thrice servants.

      1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

      The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.

      2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

   2. countableuncountablesocialThe position as a member of a sports team.

      He lost his place in the national team.

10. countableuncountableThe position of a contestant at the close of a competition.

    We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.

11. countableuncountablehobbiesThe position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.

    to win a bet on a horse for place

12. countableobsoleteuncountableA fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
13. countableuncountableNumerically, the column counting a certain quantity.

    three decimal places;  the hundreds place

14. countableuncountableOrdinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.

    That's what I said in the first place!

    1 more example

    a. 1788, Mather Byles, quoted in The Life of James Otis by William Tudor In the first place, I do not understand politics; in the second place, you all do, every man and mother's son of you; in the third place, you have politics all the week, pray let one day in the seven be devoted to religion […]

15. countableuncountableReception; effect, implying the making room for.

    My word hath no place in you.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 8:37

present singular third person places · participle present placing · participle past placed · past placed · first person past singular placed · archaic present second person singular placest · past second person singular placed · archaic past second person singular placedst · present singular third person places · archaic present singular third person placeth · past singular third person placed · past plural placed · past subjunctive placed · participle present placing · participle past placed · archaic participle past yplaced

1. transitiveTo put (someone or something) in a specific location.

   to place someone on a pedestal

   4 more examples

   He placed the glass on the table.

   His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaſte, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled ſhoes hee vvare, […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28, page 53

   Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XIX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—[…]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.

   2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200

   Synonyms: lay, lay down, put down, set down, deposit, have, set

2. ergativeTo earn a given spot in a competition; to rank at a certain position ((often followed by an ordinal)).

   The Cowboys placed third in the league.

   1 more example

   Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.

   1. ergativeintransitivehobbiesTo finish second, especially of horses or dogs.

      In the third race: Aces Up won, paying eight dollars; Blarney Stone placed, paying three dollars; and Cinnamon showed, paying five dollars.

3. transitiveTo remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered.

   I've seen him before, but I can't quite place where.

4. transitiveTo vouch for someone's alibi.

   The librarian was placed at home by her neighbor at the time of the murder.

5. transitiveTo sing (a note) with the correct pitch.

   Synonyms: reach

6. transitiveTo make.

   to place a bid

   5 more examples

   We were all focused intently on the triangular conference call speaker in the middle of the table. President Trump's communications team was placing a call to President Volodymyr Zelenksy of Ukraine, and we were here to listen.

   2021, Alexander S. Vindman, “Impeachable Offense”, in Here, Right Matters: An American Story, HarperCollins, →ISBN

   to place a call

   to place an order

   to place an ad in the newspaper

   to place a bet

7. transitiveTo bet.

   I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.

8. transitiveTo recruit or match an appropriate person for a job, or a home for an animal for adoption, etc.

   They phoned hoping to place her in the management team.

   1 more example

   Designated as the core of the southern forces were: the 5th Division, which was recalled from northern French Indochina to Shanghai, placed under the direct control of Imperial Headquarters, and, on October 12, ordered to “train primarily for landing operations” (Imperial Headquarters Army Order 467); the Imperial Guard Division, which was ordered on October 22 to assemble at Shant’ou (Swatow); the 48th Division, reorganized on October 22 from the Taiwan Mixed Brigade and ordered to advance to Hainan island; and the 18th Division at Canton.

   1980, Tsunoda Jun, “The Navy's Role in the Southern Strategy”, in Robert A. Scalapino, transl., edited by James William Morley, The Fateful Choice: Japan's Advance into Southeast Asia, 1939-1941, New York: Columbia University Press, sourced from "Nihon no tai-Bei kaisen (1940-nen–1941-nen)," Taiheiyō sensō e no michi, vol. 7, part I, sec. 1, pp. 16–28 and sec. 2, pp. 44–53, 65–88, 109–18., translation of original in Japanese, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 287

9. transitivehobbiesTo place-kick (a goal).
10. transitiveTo assign (more or less value) to something.

    She places little value on religion.

    1 more example

    My workplace places a high premium on team spirit.

plural Places

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in the town of Farmington, Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States.