Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An area under cultivation.
  • noun A group of cultivated trees or plants.
  • noun A large estate or farm on which crops are raised, often by resident workers.
  • noun A newly established settlement; a colony.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In organ-building, the disposition or arrangement of the pipes of a stop, or of all the stops, on a wind-chest.
  • noun The act of planting seeds or plants.
  • noun Introduction; establishment.
  • noun A planting with people or settlers; colonization.
  • noun A planted place, A small wood; a grove; a piece of ground planted with trees or shrubs for the purpose of producing timber or coppice-wood.
  • noun A farm, estate, or tract of land, especially in a tropical or semi-tropical country, such as the southern parts of the United States, South America, the West Indies, Africa, India, Ceylon, etc., in which cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee, etc., are cultivated, usually by negroes, peons, or coolies: as, a sugar plantation; also used attributively: as, plantation life; plantation songs.
  • noun An original settlement in a new country; a colony: as, Rhode Island and Providence plantations.
  • noun In Maine and New Hampshire, an unorganized and thinly settled division of a county.
  • noun An oyster-bed in which the oysters have been artificially planted; a cultivated area of oyster-bottom: a legal term in the State of Delaware.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare The act or practice of planting, or setting in the earth for growth.
  • noun The place planted; land brought under cultivation; a piece of ground planted with trees or useful plants; esp., in the United States and West Indies, a large estate appropriated to the production of the more important crops, and cultivated by laborers who live on the estate
  • noun An original settlement in a new country; a colony.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Large farm; estate or area of land designated for agricultural growth. Often includes housing for the owner and workers.
  • noun The importation of large numbers of workers and soldiers to displace the local population, such as in medieval Ireland and in the Caribbean.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun garden consisting of a small cultivated wood without undergrowth
  • noun an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas)
  • noun a newly established colony (especially in the colonization of North America)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin plantatio, from perfect passive participle plantatus ("planted"), from verb plantare, + noun of action suffix -tio

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Examples

  • "The use of the term plantation is foolish and my guess is that she will live to regret this," said human quote machine Larry Sabato, who teaches at the University of Virginia during those rare moments when he is not dreaming up quotes for needy reporters.

    John Leo: Flap Over Clinton Remark Is Example of Synthetic Shock Syndrome 2008

  • So actually, the use of the term plantation was a passionate response out of concern, I think, for how difficult it is to get things done in Washington for this particular demographic of people.

    CNN Transcript Jan 17, 2006 2006

  • And I think that's why the term plantation is used much to our - much to our disdain.

    CNN Transcript May 12, 2001 2001

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

  • The term plantation is an archaic term of Old English that meant a new colony.

    WLNE - News 2009

Comments

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  • Not all plantations are cotton! Southern pines, douglas-fir, and some other tree species grow best in plantations.

    December 5, 2007

  • "On the one hand, as a person who spends a minimum of 20 minutes a week furious with President William McKinley, I feel that these, the historically minded, bleeding-heart hand-wringers leading this movement, are my people.

    On the other hand, as New York City’s biggest, or perhaps only, fan of the founding of Providence Plantations, I feel compelled to stick up for its noble legacy of religious freedom."

    —Sarah Vowell, "A Plantation to Be Proud Of," New York Times, July 4, 2009 (seen here)

    I sensed a fellow traveler in this: she spends time being mad at William McKinley, as I do.

    July 6, 2009