PLOW, n.

1. In agriculture, an instrument for turning up, breaking and preparing the ground for receiving the seed. It is drawn by oxen or horses, and saves the labor of digging; it is therefore the most useful instrument in agriculture. The emperor lays hold of the plow and turns up several furrows. – Grosier, Trans. Where fern succeeds, ungrateful to the plow. – Dryden.
2. Figuratively, tillage; culture of the earth; agriculture.
3. A joiner's instrument for grooving.

1. To trench and turn up with a plow; as, to plow the ground for wheat; to plow it into ridges.
2. To furrow; to divide; to run through in sailing. With speed we plow the watery wave. – Pope.
3. To tear; to furrow. – Shak.
4. In Scripture, to labor in any calling. He that ploweth should plow in hope. – 1 Cor. ix. To plow on the back, to scourge; to mangle, or to persecute and torment. – Ps. cxxix. To plow with one's heifer, to deal with the wife to obtain something from the husband. Judges xiv. To plow iniquity or wickedness, and reap it, to devise and practice it, and at last suffer the punishment of it. – Job xiv. Hos. x. To plow in, to cover by plowing; as, to plow in wheat. To plow up or out, to turn out of the ground by plowing. To put one's hand to the plow and look back, is to enter on the service of Christ and afterward abandon it. – Luke ix. [The difference of orthography often made between the noun and verb is wholly unwarrantable, and contrary to settled analogy in our language. Such a difference is never made in changing into verbs, plot, harrow, notice, question, and most other words. See Practice.]

1. 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; as, the subsoil plow; the draining plow.
   
   

   Where fern succeeds ungrateful to the plow. Dryden.

2. To turn up, break up, or trench, with a plow] to till with, or as with, a plow; as, to plow the ground; to plow a field.
3. 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.
   
   
   Shak.

   Doth the plowman plow all day to sow ? Isa. xxviii. 24.

4. Fig.: Agriculture; husbandry.
   
   
   Johnson.
5. To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in; to run through, as in sailing.
   
   

   Let patient Octavia plow thy visage up
   With her prepared nails. Shak.

   With speed we plow the watery way. Pope.

6. A carucate of land; a plowland.
   
   
   [Obs.] [Eng.]

   Johan, mine eldest son, shall have plowes five. Tale of Gamelyn.

7. To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plow. See Plow, n., 5.
8. A joiner's plane for making grooves; a grooving plane.
9. 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.
   
   

   To plow in, to cover by plowing; as, to plow in wheat. -- To plow up, to turn out of the ground by plowing.

10. An implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.
11. Same as Charles's Wain.
    
    

    Ice plow, a plow used for cutting ice on rivers, ponds, etc., into cakes suitable for storing. [U. S.] -- Mackerel plow. See under Mackerel. - - Plow alms, a penny formerly paid by every plowland to the church. Cowell. -- Plow beam, that part of the frame of a plow to which the draught is applied. See Beam, n., 9. -- Plow Monday, the Monday after Twelth Day, or the end of Christmas holidays. -- Plow staff. (a) A kind of long-handled spade or paddle for cleaning the plowshare; a paddle staff. (b) A plow handle. -- Snow plow, a structure, usually ***LAMBDA]-shaped, for removing snow from sidewalks, railroads, etc., -- drawn or driven by a horse or a locomotive.