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Plain   /pleɪn/   Listen
adjective
Plain  adj.  (compar. plainer; superl. plainest)  
1.
Without elevations or depressions; flat; level; smooth; even. See Plane. "The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."
2.
Open; clear; unencumbered; equal; fair. "Our troops beat an army in plain fight."
3.
Not intricate or difficult; evident; manifest; obvious; clear; unmistakable. "'T is a plain case."
4.
(a)
Void of extraneous beauty or ornament; without conspicious embellishment; not rich; simple.
(b)
Not highly cultivated; unsophisticated; free from show or pretension; simple; natural; homely; common. "Plain yet pious Christians." "The plain people."
(c)
Free from affectation or disguise; candid; sincere; artless; honest; frank. "An honest mind, and plain."
(d)
Not luxurious; not highly seasoned; simple; as, plain food.
(e)
Without beauty; not handsome; homely; as, a plain woman.
(f)
Not variegated, dyed, or figured; as, plain muslin.
(g)
Not much varied by modulations; as, a plain tune.
Plain battle, open battle; pitched battle. (Obs.)
Plain chant (Mus.) Same as Plain song, below.
Plain chart (Naut.), a chart laid down on Mercator's projection.
Plain dealer.
(a)
One who practices plain dealing.
(b)
A simpleton. (Obs.)
Plain dealing. See under Dealing.
Plain molding (Join.), molding of which the surfaces are plain figures.
Plain sewing, sewing of seams by simple and common stitches, in distinct from fancy work, embroidery, etc.; distinguished also from designing and fitting garments.
Plain song.
(a)
The Gregorian chant, or canto fermo; the prescribed melody of the Roman Catholic service, sung in unison, in tones of equal length, and rarely extending beyond the compass of an octave.
(b)
A simple melody.
Plain speaking, plainness or bluntness of speech.
Synonyms: Level; flat; smooth; open; artless; unaffected; undisguised; frank; sincere; honest; candid; ingenuous; unembellished; downright; blunt; clear; simple; distinct; manifest; obvious; apparent. See Manifest.


noun
Plain  n.  
1.
Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American plains, or prairies. "Descending fro the mountain into playn." "Him the Ammonite Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain."
2.
A field of battle. (Obs.) "Lead forth my soldiers to the plain."


adverb
Plain  adv.  In a plain manner; plainly. "To speak short and pleyn." "To tell you plain."


verb
Plain  v. t.  To lament; to mourn over; as, to plain a loss. (Archaic & Poetic)


Plain  v. t.  (past & past part. plained; pres. part. plaining)  
1.
To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface. (R.) "We would rake Europe rather, plain the East."
2.
To make plain or manifest; to explain. "What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech."


Plain  v. i.  To lament; to bewail; to complain. (Archaic & Poetic) "We with piteous heart unto you pleyne."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Plain" Quotes from Famous Books



... took the goddess in his arms, and set her as she sobbed upon his knee, and rose from the peak of Kailas, and shot like a falling star down into the plain below. And coming to Haradwara, where Ganga issues from the hills, he began to follow the holy stream down its course, gliding along just above it like a cloud that was unable to refrain from watching its own beautiful reflection in the blue mirror of her wave. And so they went, until ...
— The Substance of a Dream • F. W. Bain
... me to speak plain," he said, with evident effort, "though it's hard work. You see, sir, this isn't a trifle to me, whatever it may be to you. I'm none o' them men as can go making love first to one woman and then t' another, and don't think it much odds which of 'em I take. What I feel for ...
— Adam Bede • George Eliot
... a funeral procession; I saw it from a mountain peak; I saw it crawling along and curving here and there, serpentlike, through a level vast plain. I seemed to see a hundred miles of the procession, but neither the beginning of it nor the end of it was within the limits of my vision. The procession was in ten divisions, each division marked by a sombre flag, and the whole represented ten years ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain
... The case is plain; the issue is distinct; You either answer now or out you trot (And kindly make that answer quite succinct): Have all the dumps been sold, or have ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, March 17, 1920 • Various
... Russia, and have to make his living at the expense of all this sort of tom-foolery? Who would abide even for a day in a bazar of curiosity-shops, bothered out of his wits by servants and soldiers, and the flare and glitter of jewelry? It certainly all looked very shallow and troublesome to a plain man, destitute by nature of kingly aspirations. To confess the truth, I was utterly unable to appreciate any thing but the absurdity of these things. I can not discover much difference, save in degree, between barbaric show on the part of savages ...
— The Land of Thor • J. Ross Browne


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