different between plough vs plowman

English

Alternative forms

• plow (American)

Etymology

From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English pl?h (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *pl?gaz, *pl?guz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, West Frisian ploech, North Frisian plog, Dutch ploeg, Low German Ploog, German Pflug, Danish plov, Swedish and Norwegian plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pla?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Noun

plough (plural ploughs)

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

   Synonyms: sull, (dialectal) zowl

   Hyponyms: ard, light plough, scratch plough, carruca, heavy plough, mouldboard plough, turnplough

2. The use of a plough; tillage.
   • 1919, Commonwealth Shipping Committee, Report (volume 8, page 47)

     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.

3. Alternative form of Plough (Synonym of Ursa Major)
4. Alternative form of ploughland, an alternative name for a carucate or hide.

   Synonym: carucate

   • c. 1350, Geoffrey Chaucer (attributed), The Tale of Gamelyn

     Johan, mine eldest son, shall have plowes five.

5. A joiner's plane for making grooves.
6. A bookbinder's implement for trimming or shaving off the edges of books.
7. (yoga) A yoga pose resembling a traditional plough, hal?sana.

Usage notes

The spelling plow is usual in the United States, but the spelling plough may be found in literary or historical contexts there.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

plough (third-person singular simple present ploughs, present participle ploughing, simple past and past participle ploughed)

1. (transitive) To use a plough on to prepare for planting.

2. (intransitive) To use a plough.

3. To move with force.
4. To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in.

   Synonyms: chamfer, groove, rut
5. (nautical) To run through, as in sailing.
6. (bookbinding) To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plough.
7. (joinery) 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.
8. (Britain, college slang, transitive) To fail (a student).

   Synonyms: flunk, pluck
9. (transitive, vulgar) To have sex with, penetrate.

   Synonyms: get up in, pound, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ploug, plouh, plogh, plog, ploh, ploch
• plugh, pleugh, plue, pleu (northern)

Etymology

From Old English pl?h, from Proto-West Germanic *pl?g.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plu?x/

Noun

plough (plural ploughs)

1. plow

Descendants

• English: plough
• Yola: pleough

References

• “pl?ugh, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Alternative forms

• ploughman (British)

Etymology

From Middle English plowman, ploghmon, plou?man, equivalent to plow +? man. Compare Middle Dutch ploechman.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pla?.m?n/

Noun

plowman (plural plowmen)

1. A man who plows land with a plough.

   A cereal breeder's farmhands must be good plowmen.

Related terms

• plowboy, ploughboy
• plower, plougher
• plowgirl, ploughgirl
• plowshare, ploughshare
• plowwoman, ploughwoman

Translations