From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, v. i. [OE. playne, pleyne, fr. F. plaindre. See
Plaint.]
To lament; to bewail; to complain. [Archaic & Poetic]
--Milton.
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We with piteous heart unto you pleyne. --Chaucer.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, v. t.
To lament; to mourn over; as, to plain a loss. [Archaic &
Poetic] --Sir J. Harrington.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, a. [Compar. Plainer; superl. Plainest.] [F.,
level, flat, fr. L. planus, perhaps akin to E. floor. Cf.
Llano, Piano, Plan, Plane level, a level surface.]
1. Without elevations or depressions; flat; level; smooth;
even. See Plane.
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The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain. --Isa. xl. 4.
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2. Open; clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
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Our troops beat an army in plain fight. --Felton.
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3. Not intricate or difficult; evident; manifest; obvious;
clear; unmistakable. "'T is a plain case." --Shak.
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4.
(a) Void of extraneous beauty or ornament; without
conspicious embellishment; not rich; simple.
(b) Not highly cultivated; unsophisticated; free from show
or pretension; simple; natural; homely; common. "Plain
yet pious Christians." --Hammond. "The plain people."
--A. Lincoln.
(c) Free from affectation or disguise; candid; sincere;
artless; honest; frank. "An honest mind, and plain."
--Shak.
(d) Not luxurious; not highly seasoned; simple; as, plain
food.
(e) Without beauty; not handsome; homely; as, a plain
woman.
(f) Not variegated, dyed, or figured; as, plain muslin.
(g) Not much varied by modulations; as, a plain tune.
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Plain battle, open battle; pitched battle. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.
Plain chant (Mus.) Same as Plain song, below.
Plain chart (Naut.), a chart laid down on Mercator's
projection.
Plain dealer.
(a) One who practices plain dealing.
(b) A simpleton. [Obs.] --Shak.
Plain dealing. See under Dealing.
Plain molding (Join.), molding of which the surfaces are
plain figures.
Plain sewing, sewing of seams by simple and common
stitches, in distinct from fancy work, embroidery, etc.;
-- distinguished also from designing and fitting garments.
Plain song.
(a) The Gregorian chant, or canto fermo; the prescribed
melody of the Roman Catholic service, sung in unison,
in tones of equal length, and rarely extending beyond
the compass of an octave.
(b) A simple melody.
Plain speaking, plainness or bluntness of speech.
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Syn: Level; flat; smooth; open; artless; unaffected;
undisguised; frank; sincere; honest; candid; ingenuous;
unembellished; downright; blunt; clear; simple;
distinct; manifest; obvious; apparent. See Manifest.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plained; p. pr. & vb. n.
Plaining.] [Cf. Plane, v.]
1. To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
[R.]
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We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
--Wither.
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2. To make plain or manifest; to explain.
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What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech. --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, adv.
In a plain manner; plainly. "To speak short and pleyn."
--Chaucer. "To tell you plain." --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plain \Plain\, n. [Cf. OF. plaigne, F. plaine. See Plain, a.]
1. Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of
land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by
inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American
plains, or prairies.
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Descending fro the mountain into playn. --Chaucer.
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Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. --Milton.
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2. A field of battle. [Obs.] --Arbuthnot.
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Lead forth my soldiers to the plain. --Shak.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
plain
adv 1: unmistakably (`plain' is often used informally for
`plainly'); "the answer is obviously wrong"; "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" [syn: obviously, evidently, manifestly,
patently, apparently, plainly, plain]
adj 1: clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment;
"the effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who
sees the parched fields"; "evident hostility"; "manifest
disapproval"; "patent advantages"; "made his meaning
plain"; "it is plain that he is no reactionary"; "in
plain view" [syn: apparent, evident, manifest,
patent, plain, unmistakable]
2: not elaborate or elaborated; simple; "plain food"; "stuck to
the plain facts"; "a plain blue suit"; "a plain rectangular
brick building" [ant: fancy]
3: lacking patterns especially in color [syn: plain,
unpatterned] [ant: patterned]
4: not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer
wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" [syn: plain, sheer,
unmingled, unmixed]
5: free from any effort to soften to disguise; "the plain and
unvarnished truth"; "the unvarnished candor of old people and
children" [syn: plain, unvarnished]
6: lacking embellishment or ornamentation; "a plain hair style";
"unembellished white walls"; "functional architecture
featuring stark unornamented concrete" [syn: plain, bare,
spare, unembellished, unornamented]
7: lacking in physical beauty or proportion; "a homely child";
"several of the buildings were downright homely"; "a plain
girl with a freckled face" [syn: homely, plain]
n 1: extensive tract of level open land; "they emerged from the
woods onto a vast open plain"; "he longed for the fields of
his youth" [syn: plain, field, champaign]
2: a basic knitting stitch [syn: knit, knit stitch, plain,
plain stitch]
v 1: express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or
unhappiness; "My mother complains all day"; "She has a lot
to kick about" [syn: complain, kick, plain, {sound
off}, quetch, kvetch] [ant: cheer, cheer up, {chirk
up}]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
PLAIN
Programming LAnguage for INteraction. Pascal-like, with
extensions for database, string handling, exceptions and
pattern matching. "Revised Report on the Programming Language
PLAIN", A. Wasserman, SIGPLAN Notices 6(5):59-80 (May 1981).