■ noun
1》 a flat dish, typically circular, from which food is eaten or served.
↘ N. Amer. a main course of a meal.
↘ Austral./NZ a ~ of food contributed by a guest to a social gathering.
2》 any shallow dish, especially one used for collecting donations in a church.
↘ Biology a shallow glass dish on which a culture may be grown.
3》 bowls, cups, and other utensils made of gold or silver.
↘a silver or gold dish or trophy awarded as a prize.
4》 a thin, flat sheet or strip of metal or other material, typically one used to join or strengthen or forming part of a machine.
↘a small, flat piece of metal bearing a name or inscription, designed to be fixed to a wall or door.
↘short for number ~ .
↘ Baseball short for home ~ .
↘a horizontal timber laid along the top of a wall to support the ends of joists or rafters.
↘a light horseshoe for a racehorse.
5》 Botany & Zoology a thin, flat organic structure or formation: fused bony ~s.
↘ Geology each of the several rigid pieces of the earth's lithosphere which together make up the earth's surface.
6》 a sheet of metal or other material bearing an image of type or illustrations from which multiple copies are printed.
↘a printed photograph or illustration in a book.
↘a thin sheet of metal or glass coated with a light-sensitive film on which an image is formed, used in larger or older types of camera.
7》 a thin piece of metal that acts as an electrode in a capacitor, battery, or cell.
↘ N. Amer. the anode of a thermionic valve.
■ verb
1》 cover (a metal object) with a thin coating of a different metal.
↘cover with ~s of metal for decoration or protection.
2》 serve or arrange on a ~.
3》 Baseball score or cause to score (a run or runs).
4》 Biology inoculate (cells or infective material) on to a culture ~, especially with the object of isolating a particular strain of microorganisms or estimating viable cell numbers.
Phrases
on a ~ informal indicating that something has been achieved with little or no effort.
on one's ~ chiefly Brit. occupying one's time or energy.
Derivatives
~ful noun ( plural ~fuls ).
~r noun
plating noun
Origin
ME: from OFr., from med. L. plata '~ armour', based on Gk platus 'flat'; sense 1 represents OFr. plat 'platter'.