PLAIN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Plain

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/pleɪn/ Listen

Plain

adjective

(compar. plainer; superl. plainest)

1.

Clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment. Synonyms: apparent, evident, manifest, patent, unmistakable. "Evident hostility" , "Manifest disapproval" , "Patent advantages" , "Made his meaning plain" , "It is plain that he is no reactionary" , "In plain view"

2.

Not elaborate or elaborated; simple. "Stuck to the plain facts" , "A plain blue suit" , "A plain rectangular brick building"

3.

Lacking patterns especially in color. Synonym: unpatterned.

4.

Not mixed with extraneous elements. Synonyms: sheer, unmingled, unmixed. "Sheer wine" , "Not an unmixed blessing"

5.

Free from any effort to soften to disguise. Synonym: unvarnished. "The unvarnished candor of old people and children"

6.

Lacking embellishment or ornamentation. Synonyms: bare, spare, unembellished, unornamented. "Unembellished white walls" , "Functional architecture featuring stark unornamented concrete"

7.

Lacking in physical beauty or proportion. Synonym: homely. "Several of the buildings were downright homely" , "A plain girl with a freckled face"

noun

1.

Extensive tract of level open land. Synonyms: champaign, field. "He longed for the fields of his youth"

2.

A basic knitting stitch. Synonyms: knit, knit stitch, plain stitch.

adverb

1.

Unmistakably ('plain' is often used informally for 'plainly'). Synonyms: apparently, evidently, manifestly, obviously, patently, plainly. "She was in bed and evidently in great pain" , "He was manifestly too important to leave off the guest list" , "It is all patently nonsense" , "She has apparently been living here for some time" , "I thought he owned the property, but apparently not" , "You are plainly wrong" , "He is plain stubborn"

verb

(past & past part. plained; pres. part. plaining)

1.

Express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness. Synonyms: complain, kick, kvetch, quetch, sound off. "She has a lot to kick about"

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Etymology of 'Plain'

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Nullarbor Plain

Serengeti Plain

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Plain" Quotes from Famous Books

... little raised above the others, because he had slipped a rolled-up overcoat under him, pretending that it was to get it out of the way, you understand. Always very sensitive about his shortness, W. Keyse. And she saw his face, as plain as you please, and with a look in the pale, eager eyes, that for once was for Emigration Jane, her very own self, and not for That There Other One. She knew in that moment of revelation that she had always been jealous. Oh, ...

— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... please who did not enjoy herself. The motor drive was one of the loveliest in Italy. They passed through glorious scenery, all the more beautiful as it was the blossoming time of the year and flowers were everywhere. On a marshy plain, as they reached Paestum, the fields were spangled with the little white wild narcissus, growing in such tempting quantities that Miss Morley asked the driver to stop the char-a-banc, and allowed all to dismount and pick ...

— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil

... man," he said. "As the executive of the P. K. & R, system it wouldn't be exactly official and proper in me to approve your judgment in that matter of the Italians; but as a man—plain man, now, you understand,—I know grit when I see it and—" he dropped his bluff stiffness got out of his chair and came along and squeezed Parker's muscular arm, "you've got a brand of it that I admire. Yes, I do. No mistake! But that is just between you and me. That ...

— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day

... put up a monument to his parents, a plain slab in Paleham church, inscribed with ...

— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... feminine portion of it. He usually represents American life, in which that portion is often spoken of as showing to peculiar advantage. But Mr. Reinhart sees it generally, as very bourgeois. His good ladies are apt to be rather thick and short, rather huddled and plain. I shouldn't mind it so much if they didn't look so much alive. They are incontestably possible. The long, brilliant series of drawings he made to accompany Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's papers on the American watering-places form a rich bourgeois epic, which imaginations haunted by a type must ...

— Picture and Text - 1893 • Henry James

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