plate

[[t]ple͟ɪt[/t]]

♦♦♦

plates

1) N-COUNT A plate is a round or oval flat dish that is used to hold food.

Anita pushed her plate away; she had eaten virtually nothing.

N-COUNT: usu N of n

A plate of food is the amount of food on the plate.

...a huge plate of bacon and eggs.

2) N-COUNT A plate is a flat piece of metal, especially on machinery or a building.

3) N-COUNT A plate is a small, flat piece of metal with someone's name written on it, which you usually find beside the front door of an office or house.

4) N-PLURAL On a road vehicle, the plates are the panels at the front and back which display the license number in the United States, and the registration number in Britain.

→ See also , license plate

...dusty-looking cars with New Jersey plates.

5) N-UNCOUNT Plate is dishes, bowls, and cups that are made of precious metal, especially silver or gold.

...gold and silver plate, jewellery, and roomfuls of antique furniture.

6) N-COUNT In printing, a plate is a sheet of metal which is carved or specially treated with chemicals so that it can be used to print text or pictures.

7) N-COUNT In photography, a plate is a thin sheet of glass that is covered with a layer of chemicals which react to the light and on which an image can be formed.

8) N-COUNT A plate in a book is a picture or photograph which takes up a whole page and is usually printed on better quality paper than the rest of the book.

Fermor's book has 55 colour plates.

Syn:

illustration

9) N-COUNT In a microscope, the plate is a small rectangular piece of glass onto which you put a small amount of the substance that you want to look at. You then slide the plate under the microscope to look at the substance.

Syn:

slide

10) N-COUNT A dental plate is a piece of plastic which is shaped to fit inside a person's mouth and which a set of false teeth is attached to.

11) N-COUNT In geology, a plate is a large piece of the earth's surface, perhaps as large as a continent, which moves very slowly. [TECHNICAL]

The United States Geological Survey has revealed that the earthquake was not caused by a simple horizontal movement of one plate past another.

12) N-COUNT: usu the N in sing In baseball, the plate is the same as the home plate. [AM]

13) PHRASE: V inflects If you have enough on your plate or have a lot on your plate, you have a lot of work to do or a lot of things to deal with.

We have enough on our plate. There is plenty of work to be done on what we have.

14) PHRASE: V inflects (disapproval) If you say that someone has things handed to them on a plate, you disapprove of them because they get good things easily. [mainly BRIT]

Even the presidency was handed to him on a plate.