PLANT, n. [L. planta; splendeo, splendor.]

1. A vegetable; an organic body, destitute of sense and spontaneous motion, adhering to another body in such a manner as to draw from it its nourishment, and having the power of propagating itself by seeds; “whose seed is in itself.” Gen. i. This definition may not be perfectly correct, as it respects all plants, for some aquatic plants grow without being attached to any fixed body. The woody or dicotyledonous plants consist of three parts; the bark or exterior coat which covers the wood; the wood, which is hard and constitutes the principal part; and the pith or center of the stem. In monocotyledonous plants, the ligneous or fibrous parts, and the pithy or parenchymatous, are equally distributed through the whole internal substance; and in the lower plants, funguses, sea-weed, &c. the substance is altogether parenchymatous. By means of proper vessels, the nourishing juices are distributed to every part of the plant. In its most general sense, plant comprehends all vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, &c. In popular language, the word is generally applied to the smaller species of vegetables.
2. A sapling. – Dryden.
3. In Scripture, a child; a descendant; the inhabitant of a country. – Ps. cxliv. Jer. xlviii.
4. The sole of the foot. [Little used.]
5. The fixtures and tools necessary to carry on any trade, or mechanical business. [Local.] Sea-plant, a plant that grows on the sea or in salt water; sea-weed. Sensitive plant, a plant that shrinks on being touched, the Mimosa.

To perform the act of planting. – Pope.

1. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maiz.
2. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree or a vegetable with roots.
3. To engender; to set the germ of any thing that may increase. It engenders choler, planteth anger. – Shak.
4. To set; to fix. His standard planted on Laurentum's towers. – Dryden.
5. To settle; to fix the first inhabitants; to establish; as, to plant a colony.
6. To furnish with plants; to lay out and prepare with plants; as, to plant a garden or an orchard.
7. To set and direct or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort.
8. To introduce and establish; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. – 1 Cor. iii.
9. To unite to Christ and fix in a state of fellowship with him. – Ps. xcii.

1. A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary motion, and having, when complete, a root, stem, and leaves, though consisting sometimes only of a single leafy expansion, or a series of cellules, or even a single cellule.
   
   

   * Plants are divided by their structure and methods of reproduction into two series, phænogamous or flowering plants, which have true flowers and seeds, and cryptogamous or flowerless plants, which have no flowers, and reproduce by minute one-celled spores. In both series are minute and simple forms and others of great size and complexity.

   As to their mode of nutrition, plants may be considered as self-supporting and dependent. Self-supporting plants always contain chlorophyll, and subsist on air and moisture and the matter dissolved in moisture, and as a general rule they excrete oxygen, and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and form the material for their tissues. Dependent plants comprise all fungi and many flowering plants of a parasitic or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they have no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter already organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds already existing, and not excreting oxygen. But there are plants which are partly dependent and partly self-supporting.

   The movements of climbing plants, of some insectivorous plants, of leaves, stamens, or pistils in certain plants, and the ciliary motion of zoöspores, etc., may be considered a kind of voluntary motion.

2. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth] as, to plant maize.
3. To perform the act of planting.
   
   

   I have planted; Apollos watered. 1 Cor. iii. 6.

4. A bush, or young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
   
   
   "A plant of stubborn oak." Dryden.
5. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree, or a vegetable with roots.
   
   

   Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees. Deut. xvi. 21.

6. The sole of the foot.
   
   
   [R.] "Knotty legs and plants of clay." B. Jonson.
7. To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest.
8. The whole machinery and apparatus employed in carrying on a trade or mechanical business; also, sometimes including real estate, and whatever represents investment of capital in the means of carrying on a business, but not including material worked upon or finished products; as, the plant of a foundry, a mill, or a railroad.
9. To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
   
   

   It engenders choler, planteth anger. Shak.

10. A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick.
    
    
    [Slang]

    It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey. Dickens.

11. To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish; as, to plant a colony.
    
    

    Planting of countries like planting of woods. Bacon.

12. An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
    
    
    (b)
13. To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen.
14. To set firmly; to fix; to set and direct, or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a standard in any place; to plant one's feet on solid ground; to plant one's fist in another's face.
15. To set up; to install; to instate.
    
    

    We will plant some other in the throne. Shak.