Definition of: plate

(plāt) noun
1. A flat, extended, rigid body of metal or any material of slight but even thickness.
2. Metal in sheets.
3. A shallow vessel, formerly often of wood or pewter, now usually of crockery, in which food is served or from which it is eaten at table.
4. Articles of household service, as goblets, tea sets, etc., made originally of precious metals, but now largely of base metal coated with precious metals.
5. A portion of food served at table; a dish; a plateful; also, a whole course served on one plate.
6. A cup or other article of silver or gold offered as a prize in a race or other contest.
7. A piece of flat metal bearing a design or inscription, either for use in that form, as in a door plate or coffin plate, or intended for reproduction by stamping, printing, or otherwise, as in a bookplate; also, an impression from a plate of the latter kind.
8. An electrotype or stereotype.
9. A horizontal timber laid on a wall to receive a framework.
10. Dent. A piece of metal, vulcanite, or plastic, fitted to the mouth and holding one or more artificial teeth.
11. Plate armor.
12. A thin part of the brisket of beef.
13. Phot. A sensitized sheet of glass, metal, or the like, for taking photographs.
14. In baseball, the home base, a flat, pentagonal figure, 12 inches in diameter and usually of hard white rubber level with the surface of the diamond.
15. Biol. A lamina; a lamella.
16. Geol. One of the vast discrete sections into which the earth's crust is divided, that float on the underlying magma.
17. A dish like a table plate used in taking up collections, as in churches; also, a collection.
18. A hinge. See illustration under HINGE.
19. The principal anode in a vacuum tube.
20. Obs. A piece of silver money.
—v.t. plat·ed, plat·ing
1. To coat with a thin layer of gold, silver, etc.
2. To cover or sheathe with metal plates for protection.
3. In papermaking, to give a high gloss to (paper) by pressure between metal plates.
4. Printing To make an electrotype or stereotype from. [<OF, a plate of metal, orig. fem. of plat flat <LL plattus, prob. <Gk. platys broad, flat]