n. A sheet of metal of uniform thickness and even surface: as, a plate of gold; a steel plate.n. A flat piece of metal used to strengthen arms; hence, armor made of sheets of metal, as distinguished from mail or chain-armor. See cut in preceding column.n. A shallow dish of pottery, porcelain, or metal, on which food is served at table, or from which it is eaten; also, a plateful; a course or portion at table: as, a soup-plate; a fruit-plate; a plate of soup or of fish.n. Gold or silver dishes and utensils used at table or in the home, including besides dishes other vessels, as cups, flagons, etc., as well as spoons, knives, forks, etc.: as, a sale of the furniture and plate.n. Articles which have been covered with a plating of precious metal not solid gold or silver; plated ware.n. A cup or flagon or other article of gold or silver a warded to the winner in a contest, as to the owner of the winning horse or the crew of the winning boat in a race; a “cup.''n. A beam or piece of timber laid horizontally in a wall to receive the ends of other timbers. The plate for roof-timbers, and also for joists, is called a wall-plate. Compare plat, n., 1.n. A flat piece of metal, as brass, copper, or steel, on which any representation or inscription is engraved: as, a door-plate; a coffin-Plate; especially, such a piece of metal so engraved for impression on paper, etc.: as, a book-plate; a card-plate; hence, the printed impression from an engraved plate: as, a book illustrated with plates.n. A duplicate, in one piece of metal, of the face of composed types or woodcuts.n. In dentistry, a piece of metal or composition fitted to the mouth and holding the teeth of a denture.n. In horology, one of the two parallel pieces of metal to which the wheels are pivoted in a watch or clockn. The flat piece of metal forming the side of the lock of a firearmn. A flat piece of metal usually forming a part of the bed or bosh of a metallurgical furnacen. A commonly rectangular piece of glass used in photography to receive the picture.n. In baseball, the home base.n. Naul., a bar or band of iron, as in futtockplates, channel-plate, etc.; specifically, in iron ships, the metal which forms part of the strake on the ship's side.n. Shale of the coal-measures. It is in these strata that the finest specimens of the coal-plants are most frequently found. Also called binds.n. Plate-glass.n. The finest quality of pewter.n. In anat., zoöl., and botany, a plate-like part, organ, or structure; a lamina or lamella; a layer: not specific, the thing indicated being designated by a qualifying term. See cuts under carapace, Coluber, and whalebone.n. A Spanish money of account. Also called old plate. Eight reals of old plate made the peso de plata, or piaster—that is, the Spanish dollar.To arm with platearmor for defense.To overlay or coat with silver, gold, or other metal; specifically, to attach a perma nent covering or film of one metal to (the surface of another).—3. To arm of cover (a ship) with armor-plates.—4. To beat into thin flat pieces or laminæ.To implant (microorganisms) in a thin layer of gelatin spread upon a glass plate. See plate-culture.n. In bacteriology, the film of agar-agar or gelatin poured upon a glass plate or into a Petri dish for the purpose of separating specific organisms. See plating, 3. Also called poured plate.n. A butchers' term for the long, thin cut of beef, weighing usually about 60 pounds, and including the brisket, the navel piece, and the thinner inside piece called the skirt.n. In geology, a wide area of flat and undisturbed strata.n. In polychætons annelids, one of the chitinous jaws.n. In the Brachiopoda, one of the two erect shelly plates which support the teeth of the ventral valve and rest on the bottom of that valve. By their convergence and union they form the spondylium in some species, and this structure may be supported on a single median plate or septum. See spondylium.n. In dental surgery, a plate of metal, hard rubber, or other material, molded to the shape of the roof of the mouth, which serves as a support for false teeth.n. Same as buccal shield.n. A thin coating of silver deposited over the surface of an article made of some other metal.In paper-making, to pass a finished or machine-calendered paper through the supplementary rolls called the supercalenders (which see). See also supercalendered.