plough

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.

noun

1. A device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting.
   The horse-drawn plough had a tremendous impact on agriculture.
2. The use of a plough; tillage.
   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. 1919, Commonwealth Shipping Committee, Report, volume 8, page 47
3. Alternative form of Plough (Synonym of Ursa Major)
   Rising in the north-east fairly high in the sky, Arcturus may be found by following round the curve of the plough. 2004, Amazing Physics Quiz, page 32
   To many generations of rice farmers in rural Java, Indonesia, it was not the stars of Ursa Major that formed the plough, but the stars of Orion. 2005, Clive L. N. Ruggles, Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth
   Across the Atlantic, what we call the Big Dipper has been called many other names. In England, this grouping of stars is seen as the plough. 2007, Mike Lynch, Florida Starwatch, page 52
   Consider the Big Dipper, or as it is also known, the plough or the wagon. 2010, John Turner, Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Guide to Nature on Long Island
4. Alternative form of ploughland, an alternative name for a carucate or hide.
   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, halāsana.

verb

1. (transitive) To use a plough on soil to prepare for planting.
   I've still got to plough that field.
2. (intransitive) To use a plough.
   Some days I have to plough from sunrise to sunset.
3. To move with force.
   Trucks ploughed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.
   Wolves continued to plough forward as young Belgian midfielder Mujangi Bia and Ronald Zubar both hit shots wide from good positions. January 18, 2011, “Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster”, in BBC
   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. December 30 2020, Tim Dunn, “The railway's mechanical marvels”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption
4. To furrow; to make furrows, grooves, or ridges in.
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. (UK, university slang, transitive) To fail (a student).
   The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either gulfed or ploughed. 1863, Henry Kingsley, Austin Elliot, page 123
   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. 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash
   I knew one of that lot at Corpus; in fact, we were crammed by the same tutor for "smalls," and both got ploughed. 1895, Roger Pocock, The Rules of the Game
9. (transitive, vulgar) To have sex with, penetrate.