plough

plural ploughs · alternative US plow

1. agricultureA device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting.

   The horse-drawn plough had a tremendous impact on agriculture.

   2 more examples

   Meronyms: ploughshare, plowshare, share, moldboard, mouldboard, coulter, colter, jointer, chisel, ploughbeam, beam, ploughstaff, staff, hake

   The central theme of low-till agriculture is that the plough is not always necessary and that it should be used only when truly appropriate.

   Synonyms: sull

2. Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material.
   1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of snowplough.

      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]

   2. A joiner's plane for making grooves.
   3. A bookbinder's implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.
3. 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.

   1919, Commonwealth Shipping Committee, Report, volume 8, page 47

4. alternativeAlternative form of Plough (Synonym of Ursa Major)

   Consider the Big Dipper, or as it is also known, the plough or the wagon.

   2010, John Turner, Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Guide to Nature on Long Island, →ISBN

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   Rising in the north-east fairly high in the sky, Arcturus may be found by following round the curve of the plough.

   2004, Amazing Physics Quiz, →ISBN, page 32

   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.

   2005, Clive L. N. Ruggles, Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth, →ISBN

   Across the Atlantic, what we call the Big Dipper has been called many other names. In England, this grouping of stars is seen as the plough.

   2007, Mike Lynch, Florida Starwatch, →ISBN, page 52

5. alternativeAlternative 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.

   Synonyms: carucate

6. yogaA yoga pose resembling a traditional plough, halāsana.

present singular third person ploughs · participle present ploughing · participle past ploughed · past ploughed · alternative US plow

1. transitiveTo use a plough on soil to prepare for planting.

   I've still got to plough that field.

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   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.

   1917, The English Reports: Exchequer, page 789

2. intransitiveTo use a plough.

   Some days I have to plough from sunrise to sunset.

3. To move with force.

   Trucks ploughed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.

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   Wolves continued to plough forward as young Belgian midfielder Mujangi Bia and Ronald Zubar both hit shots wide from good positions.

   2011 January 18, “Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster”, in BBC

   Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on this section of Shenfield-Southend line to warn train drivers of instances such as this.

   2020 December 30, Tim Dunn, “The railway's mechanical marvels”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption

4. colloquialtransitiveTo knock over or run over (someone) without stopping.

   My brother ploughed me over.

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   Three people were ploughed down when he lost control of the truck.

5. To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in.

   Let patient Octavia plough thy visage up / With her prepared nails.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene xii]

   Synonyms: chamfer, groove, rut

6. nauticalTo run through, as in sailing.

   With speed we plough the watery way.

   1725, Homer, “Book II”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

7. artsTo trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plough.
8. 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.
9. UKobsoletetransitiveuniversity slangTo fail (a student).

   The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either gulfed or ploughed.

   1863, Henry Kingsley, Austin Elliot, page 123

   2 more examples

   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.

   1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash

   I knew one of that lot at Corpus; in fact, we were crammed by the same tutor for "smalls," and both got ploughed.

   1895, Roger Pocock, The Rules of the Game

   Synonyms: flunk, pluck, spin

10. transitivevulgarTo sexually penetrate, typically in a vigorous manner.

    I love just getting ploughed face down on my bed.

    1 more example

    If you don't use rubbers when you're plowing someone's throat, don't bother answering this ad.

    1990 February 11, “Working Up An Appetite (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 30, page 13

    Synonyms: get up in, pound, Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy

1. UKcommonnameastronomyThe brightest seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major. They are Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Dubhe, Merak, and Phecda.

   Later on, as I walked home / The Plough was showing, and Orion

   1998, Belle and Sebastian, “Ease Your Feet in the Sea”, in The Boy with the Arab Strap

   Synonyms: Big Dipper, Charles' Wain, Drinking Gourd, Northern Ladle, Northern Waggoner, Wain, triones, septentriones

plural Ploughs

1. A surname.