plate

Meanings

Noun

• A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.
• Such dishes collectively.
• The contents of such a dish.
• A course at a meal.
• An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities
• A flat metallic object of uniform thickness.
• A vehicle license plate.
• A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.
• Plate armour.
• A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating
• A material covered with such a layer.
• A decorative or food service item coated with silver or gold.
• A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine.
• An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.
• An image or copy.
• An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages.
• A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate.
• A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs.
• A foot, from "plates of meat".
• Home plate.
• A tectonic plate.
• Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles.
• A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank.
• The anode of a vacuum tube.
• A prize given to the winner in a contest.
• Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic.
• A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code.
• The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline.
• A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture.
• One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal.
• A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses.
• Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted.
• The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material.
• A record, usually vinyl.
• Precious metal, especially silver.
• Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.
• A roundel of silver or argent.

Verb

• To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.
• To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.
• To score a run.
• To arm or defend with metal plates.
• To beat into thin plates.
• To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of.
• to categorise stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.
• (particularly with early British stamps) to identify the printing plate used.

Origin

• Middle English, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek πλατύς ("broad, flat, wide"). Compare Spanish plato.
• Middle English, partly from Anglo-Norman plate and partly from Latin plata ("silver"), from Vulgar Latin *platta ("metal plate"), from feminine of Latin *plattus ("flat").
• From Spanish plata.