plough
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /plaʊ/
rhymes: -aʊ
Forms: form: ploughs
form: ploughing
form: ploughed
form: ploughed
form: plow
Etymology: From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Swedish and Norwegian plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.
Senses: examples: text: I've still got to plough that field.
text: That there is and from time immemorial has been within that part of the parish called Mablethorpe St. Mary's a laudable custom that, if any outdweller take ancient pasture ground, he shall pay a modus of 4d. an acre, and so in proportion, on the 1st of August, in lieu of all manner of tithe; and that if any of the ancient pasture be once ploughed up or meadowed, it shall, when restored to pasture again, pay 4d. the acre in the hands of such outdweller.
ref: 1917, The English Reports: Exchequer, page 789:
glosses: To use a plough on soil to prepare for planting.
examples: text: Some days I have to plough from sunrise to sunset.
glosses: To use a plough.
examples: text: Trucks ploughed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.
text: Wolves continued to plough forward as young Belgian midfielder Mujangi Bia and Ronald Zubar both hit shots wide from good positions.
ref: 2011 January 18, “Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster”, in BBC:
text: Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on this section of Shenfield-Southend line to warn train drivers of instances such as this.
ref: 2020 December 30, Tim Dunn, “The railway's mechanical marvels”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption:
glosses: To move with force.
examples: text: My brother ploughed me over.
text: Three people were ploughed down when he lost control of the truck.
glosses: To knock over or run over (someone) without stopping.
examples: text: Let patient Octavia plough thy visage up / With her prepared nails.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene xii]:
synonyms: chamfer
groove
rut
glosses: To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in.
examples: text: With speed we plough the watery way.
ref: 1725, Homer, “Book II”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To run through, as in sailing.
topics: arts
bookbinding
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To trim, or shave off the edges of, as a book or paper, with a plough.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either gulfed or ploughed.
ref: 1863, Henry Kingsley, Austin Elliot, page 123:
text: You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination consists of several items: neglect but one, and Crichton himself would be ploughed; because brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to count; that is how the most distinguished man of our day got ploughed for Smalls.
ref: 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash:
text: I knew one of that lot at Corpus; in fact, we were crammed by the same tutor for "smalls," and both got ploughed.
ref: 1895, Roger Pocock, The Rules of the Game:
synonyms: flunk
pluck
qualifier: university slang
glosses: To fail (a student).
examples: text: I love just getting ploughed face down on my bed.
text: If you don't use rubbers when you're plowing someone's throat, don't bother answering this ad.
ref: 1990 February 11, “Working Up An Appetite (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 30, page 13:
synonyms: word: get up in
word: pound
word: Formal terms
word: bed
word: coit
word: coitize
word: dight
word: enjoy
word: feague
word: go in unto
word: go to bed with
word: have
word: know
word: lie by
word: lie with
word: love
word: mount
word: occupy
word: penetrate
word: season
word: seduce
word: sleep with
word: take
word: Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with"
word: Informal and slang terms
word: ball
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beep
word: be with
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: boom-boom
word: dick
word: diddle
word: dig out
word: do
word: doink
word: drill
word: eff
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: fill
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get into someone's pants
word: get over on
word: get up in
word: give someone one
word: give someone the time
word: go with
word: have one's way with
word: have one's wicked way with
word: hit
word: hump
word: jape
word: jump
word: jump someone's bones
word: knob
word: knock
word: knock off
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: lay
word: love up
word: make
word: nail
word: plough
word: plug
word: poke
word: pork
word: pound
word: prig
word: pump
word: ream
word: rock
word: roger
word: root
word: run through
word: rut
word: sard
word: schlong
word: screw
word: see to
word: service
word: shaft
word: shag
word: shelve
word: slay
word: slip it to
word: smash
word: smush
word: stallionize
word: swive
word: tap
word: tup
word: wap
glosses: To sexually penetrate, typically in a vigorous manner.
Derived terms: overplough
ploughability
ploughable
plough ahead
plough a lonely furrow
plough back
plough down
plough in
plough into
plough money
plough on
plough one's own furrow
plough one's way
plough over
Ploughright
plough the back forty
plough the sands
plough through
plough under
plough up
replough
upplough
Related terms: disc
furrow
harrow
rake
till
yoke