plus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plus (“more”).

prep

1. And; sum of the previous one and the following one.
   Two plus two equals four.
   A water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms plus one of oxygen.
2. (colloquial) With; having in addition.
   I've won a holiday to France plus five hundred euros in spending money!

conj

1. And also; in addition; besides (which).
   Let's go home now. It's late, plus I'm not feeling too well.

noun

1. A positive quantity.
   But the pluses far outweigh the criticisms. April 19 2023, Pip Dunn, “Jack of all trades... and master of most”, in RAIL, number 981, page 57
2. An asset or useful addition.
   He is a real plus to the team.
   Look at Trife. He's got two felonies. That means he's finished in society. But he can rap. His two felonies, in rap, man, that's a plus. 2000-07-06, N. R. Kleinfield, quoting Dog, “Guarding the Borders Of the Hip-Hop Nation”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (arithmetic) A plus sign: +.
4. A way to address the entire lgbtqia+ community replacing the ever-growing lgbtqia+ acronym without the negative connotations associated with the term queer.

adj

1. Being positive rather than negative or zero.
   −2 * −2 = +4 ("minus 2 times minus 2 equals plus four")
2. Positive, or involving advantage.
   He is a plus factor.
3. (physics) Electrically positive.
   A battery has both a plus pole and a minus pole.
4. (postpositive) (Of a quantity) Equal to or greater than; or more; upwards.
   The bus can fit 60 plus kids, but we only get 48.

verb

1. (informal) To add; to subject to addition.
   For him y is a unique number, like 7, but for the time being unknown — if one does the operation of 'plussing 4' one still has, as a result, a unique number even though one does not yet know what it is. 1973, Australian Council for Educational Research, ACER research series - Issues 93-95, page 39
   The teacher observing the behavior of a child who is plussing or not-plussing is observing instances or not-instances of the concept of plussing. 1974, Control of Human Behavior: Behavior modification in education
2. (often followed by 'up') To increase in magnitude.
   I am doing a lot of writing here, plussing the script, adding sequences. 2006, Danny Fingeroth, Mike Manley, How to Create Comics: From Script to Print, page 48
   We are losing at the street level a number of officers, but we are plussing up deputy positions. 2009, United States Congress House Committee on Homeland Security, The Direction and Viability of the Federal Protective Service
   And I believe that, if we can't recognize that in retirement, we ought to recognize it in plussing up hazardous duty pay, plussing up sea duty pay and all those other things that recognize people that don't punch out on Saturday, on Friday afternoon and go home, and just, you know, go day after day after day. 2012, United States Congress House Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Military Retirement Reform, page 24
3. To improve.
   Coach Wooden didn't have to depend upon having the most talented players on his team because he could depend upon plussing to constantly make everyone better. 1998, Nate Booth, Strategies for Fast-Changing Times, page 91
   Keep fooling around with it, improving it, and making it better. You know you have a unique factor when someone steals it. So keep the unique factor unique by constantly plussing it. 2007, Howard Hendricks, Color Outside the Lines, page 123
   He was a pioneer in plussing the artform of animated cartoons. He began by plussing Micky Mouse with sound, the plussing the Silly Symphonies with color. Walt plussed the skills of his artists by sending them to art school at his own expense. 2004, Pat Williams, Jim Denney, How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life, page 154
4. To provide critical feedback by giving suggestions for improvement rather than criticisms.
   The animators and directors on the receiving end of the plussing don't necessarily have to accept and incorporate the feedback, but plussing provides a method to share criticisms in a way that makes it more likely that they will. 2013, David Burkus, The Myths of Creativity
   Strategic leaders can adapt the US Army's after-action review and Pixar's plussing technique (where you build on ideas rather than critique and subtract) to show their teams how to learn from mistakes. 2014, Steven Krupp, Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Winning the Long Game: How Strategic Leaders Shape the Future
   When people view the early drafts of ideas for their movies under development, they always use plussing to try and come up with suggestions for enhancements. Feedback is always given in an upbeat rather than a derogatory manner. 2014, BusinessNews Publishing, Summary : Little Bets - Peter Sims
5. (sales) To sell additional related items with an original purchase.
   Good will is also secured by plussing the original purchase with another article that goes appropriately with it. 1920, The Current Business Cyclopedia: Business Digest
   Plussing the original sale creates a win-win situation. The customer benefits because it often saves him the time necessary to run back to the store for overlooked items. 1986, Max Fallek, How to Set Up and Operate Your Own Law Practice
6. (psychology) To frame in a positive light; to provide a sympathetic interpretation.
   Plussing is a technique for enhancing a positive atmosphere in the session, for diminishing hostility, and for raising self-esteem. 1979, Douglas A. Puryear, Helping People in Crisis, page 87
   In addition to active listening as a general therapeutic strategy, Puryear identifies two specific techniques, plussing and paradox, that are used throughout the crisis intervention. 1997, Bernard L. Bloom, Planned short-term psychotherapy: a clinical handbook, page 187
   When plussing, the intervenor introduces novel viewpoints that can increase the self-esteem of both the attacker and the target. 2015, Kenneth France, Crisis Intervention, page 177
7. (social media, dated) To give a mark of approval on Google+.
   Coordinate term: like
   How do you get others to add you or your brand to their circles? By creating and sharing useful content, commenting, plussing others' content and comments, and engaging with others on Google+. 2012, Lee Odden, Optimize, page 111
   Everyone was plussing them or liking them or pinning them. The videos went viral. 2014, Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc., page 279
8. (homeopathy) To increase the potency of a remedy by diluting it in water and stirring.
   On hearing this, plussing was done (all medicated water of the phial was thrown away and fresh distilled was added and 10 strokes were given) on the 13th February 1974. 2005, B. Sahni, Transmission of Homoeo Drug Energy from Distance, page 188
   From the remaining water a second dilution can be prepared plussing it to the next slightly higher potency. 2007, Kate Birch, Vaccine Free Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Contagious Disease with Homeopathy
   Plussing is used quite frequently in a patient who's quite sensitive or has an acute problem happening or needs to change his dose or need to take it over several days. 2011, Kim Lane, Homeopathy for Home: Acute Illness & Injury Care, page 29
9. (optometry) To increase a correction.
   No aspheric cataract spectacle lens designer has ever given the slightest thought to this 4 to 6 diopters of over-plussing for peripheral vision which is responsible for tremendous peripheral distortion, worse peripheral swim, worse false orientation, worse magnification, severe concave curvature of field ("The floor comes up at you"), increased ring scotoma size and increase jack-in-the-box phenomenon (the "horse-blinder effect") with unsafe walking and driving. 1976, David M. Worthen, Perry S. Binder, The intraocular lens in perspective, page 2