plaining

Verb (1)

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.
   • Frownst thou thereat aspiring Lancaster,
     The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC...
2. (obsolete, transitive) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
   • What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...

Verb (2)

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (obsolete, reflexive) To complain.
   • Persones and parisch prestes · pleyned hem to þe bischop / Þat here parisshes were pore · sith þe pestilence tyme […].c. 1378-9, [William Langland], “[Prologue]”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...] (Cr, B-text), London: […] Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, →OCLC
2. (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To lament, bewail.
   • to plain a loss

See all 24 meanings of plain