Library / English Dictionary

PLANK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An endorsed policy in the platform of a political party

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("plank" is a kind of...):

policy (a line of argument rationalizing the course of action of a government)

Holonyms ("plank" is a part of...):

platform; political platform; political program; program (a document stating the aims and principles of a political party)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes

Synonyms:

board; plank

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("plank" is a kind of...):

lumber; timber (the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material)

Meronyms (parts of "plank"):

knot (a hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged)

knothole (a hole in a board where a knot came out)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plank"):

matchboard (a board that has a groove cut into one edge and a tongue cut into the other so they fit tightly together (as in a floor))

skid (one of a pair of planks used to make a track for rolling or sliding objects)

strake; wale (thick plank forming a ridge along the side of a wooden ship)

chipboard; hardboard (a cheap hard material made from wood chips that are pressed together and bound with synthetic resin)

deal (a plank of softwood (fir or pine board))

Derivation:

plank (cook and serve on a plank)

plank (cover with planks)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cook and serve on a plank

Example:

Planked shad

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "plank" is one way to...):

dish; dish out; dish up; serve; serve up (provide (usually but not necessarily food))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

plank (a stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover with planks

Example:

The streets were planked

Synonyms:

plank; plank over

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "plank" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

plank (a stout length of sawn timber; made in a wide variety of sizes and used for many purposes)

planking (the work of covering an area with planks)

planking ((nautical) a covering or flooring constructed of planks (as on a ship))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Set (something or oneself) down with or as if with a noise

Example:

He planked himself into the sofa

Synonyms:

flump; plank; plonk; plop; plump; plump down; plunk; plunk down

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "plank" is one way to...):

place down; put down; set down (cause to sit or seat or be in a settled position or place)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

The walls of bare unpainted planks were studded here and there with great wooden pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from which hung over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Portuguese held his tongue like a brick, and walked the plank, while the jolly tars cheered like mad.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Will no one come?" it cried; and then, while the staggering and stamping went on wildly, I distinguished through plank and plaster:—Rochester!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Our feet creaked and crackled over the bare planking, and my outstretched hand touched a wall from which the paper was hanging in ribbons.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But a great cry, which was audible even above the wind and water, rose from the shore at this moment; the sea, sweeping over the rolling wreck, made a clean breach, and carried men, spars, casks, planks, bulwarks, heaps of such toys, into the boiling surge.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For instance, a crew of pirates are driven by a storm they know not whither; at length a boy discovers land from the top-mast; they go on shore to rob and plunder, they see a harmless people, are entertained with kindness; they give the country a new name; they take formal possession of it for their king; they set up a rotten plank, or a stone, for a memorial; they murder two or three dozen of the natives, bring away a couple more, by force, for a sample; return home, and get their pardon.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And he punched on and on, slower and slower, as the last shreds of vitality oozed from him, through centuries and aeons and enormous lapses of time, until, in a dim way, he became aware that the nameless thing was sinking, slowly sinking down to the rough board-planking of the bridge.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then I tied the bodies into the boat, stove a plank, and stood by until they had sunk.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea upon a few planks.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Dreadful stories they were—about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)