plant

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
plant/plɑːnt/

▶noun

• 1 a living organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, typically growing in a permanent site, absorbing water and inorganic substances through the roots, and synthesizing nutrients in the leaves by photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll.

  ■ a small plant, as distinct from a shrub or tree.

• 2 a place where an industrial or manufacturing process takes place.

  ■ machinery used in an industrial or manufacturing process.

• 3 a person placed in a group as a spy or informer.

  ■ a thing put among someone's belongings to incriminate or discredit them.

• 4 Snooker a shot in which the cue ball is made to strike one of two touching or nearly touching balls with the result that the second is potted.

▶verb

• 1 place (a seed, bulb, or plant) in the ground so that it can grow.

  ■ (plant something out) place a plant in the ground out of doors.

• 2 place or fix in a specified position.

  ■ secretly place (a bomb).

  ■ stock a river or lake with (young fish, spawn, oysters, etc.).

• 3 establish (an idea) in someone's mind.

• 4 found or establish (a colony or community).

• 5 put or hide (something) among someone's belongings as a plant.

  ■ send (someone) to join a group to act as a spy or informer.

– derivatives
plantable adjective,
plantlet noun,
plant-like adjective.

– origin OE plante ‘seedling’, plantian (v.), from L. planta ‘sprout, cutting’ (later influenced by Fr. plante) and plantare ‘plant, fix in place’.