plow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A farm implement consisting of a heavy blade at the end of a beam, usually hitched to a draft team or motor vehicle and used for breaking up soil and cutting furrows in preparation for sowing.
2. n. An implement of similar function, such as a snowplow.
3. v. To break and turn over (earth) with a plow.
4. v. To form (a furrow, for example) with a plow.
5. v. To form furrows in with or as if with a plow: plow a field.
6. v. To make or form with driving force: I plowed my way through the crowd.
7. v. To cut through (water): plow the high seas.
8. v. To break and turn up earth with a plow.
9. v. To admit of plowing: Rocky earth plows poorly.
10. v. To move or progress with driving force: The attackers formed a wedge and plowed through the enemy line.
11. v. To proceed laboriously; plod: plowed through the backlog of work.
12. plow back To reinvest (earnings or profits) in one's business.
13. plow into Informal To strike with force.
14. plow into Informal To undertake (a task, for example) with eagerness and vigor.
15. plow under To cause to vanish under something piled up.
16. plow under To overwhelm, as with burdens.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An agri cultural implement, drawn by animals or moved by steam-power, used to cut the ground and turn it up so as to prepare it for the reception of seeds. The soil is cut to a depth of several inches, raised up, and turned over by the progress of the plow, the object being to expose a new surface to the air and, by pulverizing and loosening the soil, to fit it for the reception of seed and the vigorous growth of crops. The plow, in various forms, is also much used for other purposes. In its modern form, the common agricultural plow essentially consists of a plow-beam provided with a clevis for attachment of draft-animals; handles, connected with each other and cross braced by the rounds; a mold-board, usually of cast-iron; a plowshare, usually of steel, or steel-pointed, and bolted to the mold-board; a land-aide, usually of castiron, attached to the mold-board near the front edge of the latter and in line with the beam; a colter, of wrought-iron with a tempered-steel edge, attached to the beam in line with the front edge of the mold-board; and a standard or sheth, projecting upward from and usually integral with the mold-board, and connecting the latter with the beam. The rear end of the beam is attached to the land-side handle, one handle being attached to the rear part of the landside and the other to the rear part of the mold-board. Often a wheel is adjustably attached to the beam near the clevis, for gaging the depth of the furrow.
2. n. Figuratively, tillage; culture of the earth; agriculture.
3. n. A tool that furrows, grooves, planes, cuts, or otherwise acts by pushing or shoving, like a plow, , , , In woodworking, a kind of plane used for grooving door-stiles and similar work. It has an adjustable fence, and is usually adapted to carry eight different widths of plane-irons, for different widths of grooves
4. n. A plowland.
5. n. A plow which can be adjusted to turn a furrow either to the right or to the left. Also called drillplow, reversible plow, and turningmold-board plow.
6. n. A plow having a wheel in the space between the land-side and the mold-board, reducing the friction of the plow by bearing the weight. E. H. Knight. (See also balance-plow, ice-plow, prairie-plow, snow-plow, sodplow.)
7. To turn up with a plow; till.
8. To make furrows, grooves, or ridges in, as with a plow; furrow; figuratively, to move through like a plow; make one's way through.
9. To effect as with a plow; traverse like a plow.
10. To trim or square, as the edges of paper, with a plow. See plow, n., 3 .
11. To cut or gash (a fish) with the plow or rimmer.
12. To reject, as a candidate in an examination; pluck.
13. To turn up the soil with a plow; till the soil with a plow.
14. n. An arm and wooden mold-board, shod with leather, two of which in a gunpowder-incorporating mill serve to draw the mixture of niter, sulphur, and charcoal into the track of the heavy edge-runners.
15. In carpentry, to groove the edge of (a board) in tonguing and grooving.
16. To turn over (grain) in malting, so as to expose fresh surfaces to the air and equalize temperature.

Wiktionary

1. n. alternative spelling of plough.
2. v. alternative spelling of plough.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A well-known implement, drawn by horses, mules, oxen, or other power, for turning up the soil to prepare it for bearing crops; also used to furrow or break up the soil for other purposes
2. n. Fig.: Agriculture; husbandry.
3. n. A carucate of land; a plowland.
4. n. A joiner's plane for making grooves; a grooving plane.
5. n. An implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.
6. n. Same as Charles's Wain.
7. v. To turn up, break up, or trench, with a plow; to till with, or as with, a plow
8. v. To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in; to run through, as in sailing.
9. v. To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plow. See Plow, n., 5.
10. v. 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.
11. v. To labor with, or as with, a plow; to till or turn up the soil with a plow; to prepare the soil or bed for anything.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a farm tool having one or more heavy blades to break the soil and cut a furrow prior to sowing
2. v. to break and turn over earth especially with a plow
3. v. move in a way resembling that of a plow cutting into or going through the soil
4. v. act on verbally or in some form of artistic expression