Plane (?), n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. &unr_;, fr. &unr_; broad; -- so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form. See Place, and cf. Platane, Plantain the tree.] (Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus.
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&hand_; The Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a native of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental plane (Platanus occidentalis), which grows to a great height, is a native of North America, where it is popularly called sycamore, buttonwood, and buttonball, names also applied to the California species (Platanus racemosa).
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Plane, n. [F. plane, L. plana. See Plane, v. & a.] 1. (Geom.) A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.
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2. (Astron.) An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.
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3. (Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.
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4. (Joinery) A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc.
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Objective plane (Surv.), the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand. -- Perspective plane. See Perspective. -- Plane at infinity (Geom.), a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated. -- Plane iron, the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane. -- Plane of polarization. (Opt.) See Polarization. -- Plane of projection. (a) The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; -- called also principal plane. (b) (Descriptive Geom.) One of the planes to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position in space. -- Plane of refraction or Plane of reflection (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.
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Plane, v. i. Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]