Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plate \Plate\, n. [OF. plate a plate of metal, a cuirsas, F. plat a plate, a shallow vessel of silver, other metal, or earth, fr. plat flat, Gr. ?. See Place, n.]
A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate.
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Metallic armor composed of broad pieces.
Mangled . . . through plate and mail.
--Milton. Domestic vessels and utensils, as flagons, dishes, cups, etc., wrought in gold or silver.
Metallic ware which is plated, in distinction from that which is silver or gold throughout.
A small, shallow, and usually circular, vessel of metal or wood, or of earth glazed and baked, from which food is eaten at table.
[Cf. Sp. plata silver.] A piece of money, usually silver money. [Obs.] ``Realms and islands were as plates dropp'd from his pocket.''
--Shak.A piece of metal on which anything is engraved for the purpose of being printed; hence, an impression from the engraved metal; as, a book illustrated with plates; a fashion plate.
A page of stereotype, electrotype, or the like, for printing from; as, publisher's plates.
That part of an artificial set of teeth which fits to the mouth, and holds the teeth in place. It may be of gold, platinum, silver, rubber, celluloid, etc.
(Arch.) A horizontal timber laid upon a wall, or upon corbels projecting from a wall, and supporting the ends of other timbers; also used specifically of the roof plate which supports the ends of the roof trusses or, in simple work, the feet of the rafters.
(Her.) A roundel of silver or tinctured argent.
(Photog.) A sheet of glass, porcelain, metal, etc., with a coating that is sensitive to light.
A prize giving to the winner in a contest.
(Baseball) A small five-sided area (enveloping a diamond-shaped area one foot square) beside which the batter stands and which must be touched by some part of a player on completing a run; -- called also home base, or home plate.
One of the thin parts of the bricket of an animal.
A very light steel racing horsehoe.
Loosely, a sporting contest for a prize; specif., in horse racing, a race for a prize, the contestants not making a stake.
Skins for fur linings of garments, sewed together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted. [Furrier's Cant]
(Hat Making) The fine nap (as of beaver, hare's wool, musquash, nutria, or English black wool) on a hat the body of which is of an inferior substance.
a quantity sufficient to fill a plate; a plateful; a dish containing that quantity; a plate of spaghetti.
the food and service supplied to a customer at a restaurant; as, the turkey dinner is $9 a plate; I'll have a plate of spaghetti.
a flat dish of glass or plastic with a fitted cover, used for culturing microorganisms in a laboratory.
the identification tag required to be displayed on the outside of a vehicle; same as license plate; -- often used in the plural.
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an agenda or schedule of tasks to be performed; I have a lot on my plate today. [colloq.] Note: Plate is sometimes used in an adjectival sense or in combination, the phrase or compound being in most cases of obvious signification; as, plate basket or plate-basket, plate rack or plate-rack. Home plate. (Baseball) See Home base, under Home. Plate armor.
See Plate, n., 2.
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Strong metal plates for protecting war vessels, fortifications, and the like.
Plate bone, the shoulder blade, or scapula.
Plate girder, a girder, the web of which is formed of a single vertical plate, or of a series of such plates riveted together.
Plate glass. See under Glass.
Plate iron, wrought iron plates.
Plate layer, a workman who lays down the rails of a railway and fixes them to the sleepers or ties.
Plate mark, a special mark or emblematic figure stamped upon gold or silver plate, to indicate the place of manufacture, the degree of purity, and the like; thus, the local mark for London is a lion.
Plate paper, a heavy spongy paper, for printing from engraved plates.
--Fairholt.Plate press, a press with a flat carriage and a roller, -- used for printing from engraved steel or copper plates.
Plate printer, one who prints from engraved plates.
Plate printing, the act or process of printing from an engraved plate or plates.
Plate tracery. (Arch.) See under Tracery.
Plate wheel (Mech.), a wheel, the rim and hub of which are connected by a continuous plate of metal, instead of by arms or spokes.
Wiktionary
n. (context baseball English) A flat, pentagonal, rubber object placed at the center of the batter's box, which is used as a basis for judging pitched strikes and balls, and the touching of which by a runner advancing from or past third base scores a run.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Home Plate is the fifth album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1975 (see 1975 in music).
Home Plate is a plateau roughly 90 m across within the Columbia Hills, Mars. It is informally named for its similarity in shape to a baseball home plate. Home Plate is a rocky outcrop that appears to show layered features.
The plateau has been extensively studied by Spirit, one of the Mars Exploration Rovers, since 2006. The rover became stuck in loose granular material alongside the northeast side of the plateau. The rover last communicated with Earth on March 22, 2010.
Home plate is a baseball term for the final base that a player must touch to score.
Home plate may also refer to:
- Home Plate (Mars), a geologic feature on Mars observed by the Spirit rover
- Home Plate (album), an album by Bonnie Raitt
- Home Plate Farm, a historic building in Sudbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
- MLB Home Plate, now MLB Network Radio, a satellite radio station
Usage examples of "home plate".
I edged in and got a position just behind the stone that served as home plate.
This speed difference becomes obvious when you watch a baseball game, for instance, from seats that are far from home plate.
At a glance, Bryan would've set her more easily at a ballet bar than home plate.
Across short distances, the Kalashnikov AKS91 interface gun will lift and fly direct to an implanted bioalloy home plate.
He was pressed all along her left side, his hard thigh rubbing hers, and he kept his right arm around her except for those times when he felt compelled to leap to his feet and yell insults at the home plate umpire who, as it turned out, was yet another cousin.
Larry Joe trudged down the hill toward the lodge, leaving me alone on what would have been home plate had there been anything whatsoever pounded into the dirt.
My father had sat in the bleacher seats at that Little League game, and when he saw my mother strolling carelessly along the third-base line-when she had spotted him in the stands and waved to him, with her back to home plate-at that moment, my father told me, he had prayed to God that my mother would drop dead!
When he took his hand away, there it still was, the ball, hanging motionless a few feet above home plate.
Karl picked up the bat, and stepped up to the makeshift home plate.
Just before Peter had climbed into the Barracuda, he had returned to the operations center, where he was now handling home plate.
Butch just shrugged, but the sun-drenched grass and the signs advertising Knickerbocker Beer on the outfield fences and the crowd all crazy and the Belgorvian ball-machines glinting in the sunlight and the flag waving over the grandstand behind home plate and the faint odor of buttered popcorn drifting out to center and Mr.
It's a nuisance having this crop up when we were so close to home plate.