The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
n. A small triangular board supported by two casters and a vertical pencil that, when lightly touched by the fingertips, is said to spell out subconscious or supernatural messages.
n. A type of Ouija board. (A small tablet of wood supported on casters and having a pencil attached. The characters produced by the pencil on paper, while the hand rests on the instrument and it is allowed to move, are sometimes interpreted as of oracular or supernatural import.)
n. A plane-table.
n. Circular, colored dots pressed into paper money, used to distinguish authentic currency from counterfeit currency.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. A circumferentor. See circumferentor.
n. A small tablet of wood supported on casters and having a pencil attached. The characters produced by the pencil on paper, while the hand rests on the instrument and it is allowed to move, are sometimes translated as of oracular or supernatural import.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. A small heart-shaped or triangular board mounted on three supports, of which two, placed at the angles of the base, are easily moving casters, and the third, placed at the apex, is a pencil-point.
n. A circumferentor.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. a triangular board supported on casters; when lightly touched with the fingertips it is supposed to spell out supernatural (or unconscious) messages
Word Usage
"He really believes that he can receive messages from the dead through this very simple contraption: a cardboard chart of all twenty-six letters in the Latin alphabet and all the numbers zero through nine, with a plastic heart-shaped doodad known as a planchette that has three stubby legs and a tiny window of sorts in the middle."