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Webster 1913 Edition


Place

Place

(plās)
,
Noun.
[F., fr. L.
platea
a street, an area, a courtyard, from Gr.
πλατεῖα
a street, properly fem. of
πλατύς
, flat, broad; akin to Skr.
pṛthu
, Lith.
platus
. Cf.
Flawn
,
Piazza
,
Plate
,
Plaza
.]
1.
Any portion of space regarded as measured off or distinct from all other space, or appropriated to some definite object or use; position; ground; site; spot; rarely, unbounded space.
Here is the
place
appointed.
Shakespeare
What
place
can be for us
Within heaven’s bound?
Milton.
The word
place
has sometimes a more confused sense, and stands for that space which any body takes up; and so the universe is a
place
.
Locke.
2.
A broad way in a city; an open space; an area; a court or short part of a street open only at one end.
“Hangman boys in the market place.”
Shak.
3.
A position which is occupied and held; a dwelling; a mansion; a village, town, or city; a fortified town or post; a stronghold; a region or country.
Are you native of this
place
?
Shakespeare
4.
Rank; degree; grade; order of priority, advancement, dignity, or importance; especially, social rank or position; condition; also, official station; occupation; calling.
“The enervating magic of place.”
Hawthorne.
Men in great
place
are thrice servants.
Bacon.
I know my
place
as I would they should do theirs.
Shakespeare
5.
Vacated or relinquished space; room; stead (the departure or removal of another being or thing being implied).
“In place of Lord Bassanio.”
Shak.
6.
A definite position or passage of a document.
The
place
of the scripture which he read was this.
Acts viii. 32.
7.
Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding;
as, he said in the first
place
.
8.
Reception; effect; – implying the making room for.
My word hath no
place
in you.
John viii. 37.
9.
(Astron.)
Position in the heavens, as of a heavenly body; – usually defined by its right ascension and declination, or by its latitude and longitude.
Place of arms
(Mil.)
,
a place calculated for the rendezvous of men in arms, etc., as a fort which affords a safe retreat for hospitals, magazines, etc.
Wilhelm.
High place
(Script.)
,
a mount on which sacrifices were offered.
“Him that offereth in the high place.”
Jer. xlviii. 35.
In place
,
in proper position; timely.
Out of place
,
inappropriate; ill-timed;
as, his remarks were
out of place
.
Place kick
(Football)
,
the act of kicking the ball after it has been placed on the ground.
Place name
,
the name of a place or locality.
London Academy.
To give place
,
to make room; to yield; to give way; to give advantage.
“Neither give place to the devil.”
Eph. iv. 27.
“Let all the rest give place.”
Shak.
To have place
,
to have a station, room, or seat; as, such desires can have no place in a good heart.
To take place
.
(a)
To come to pass; to occur; as, the ceremony will not take place.
(b)
To take precedence or priority.
Addison.
(c)
To take effect; to prevail.
“If your doctrine takes place.”
Berkeley.
“But none of these excuses would take place.”
Spenser.
To take the place of
,
to be substituted for.
Syn. – Situation; seat; abode; position; locality; location; site; spot; office; employment; charge; function; trust; ground; room; stead.

Place

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Placed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Placing
.]
[Cf. F.
placer
. See
Place
,
Noun.
]
1.
To assign a place to; to put in a particular spot or place, or in a certain relative position; to direct to a particular place; to fix; to settle; to locate;
as, to
place
a book on a shelf; to
place
balls in tennis.

Syn. – Put.
Upon my head they
placed
a fruitless crown.
Shakespeare
2.
To put or set in a particular rank, office, or position; to surround with particular circumstances or relations in life; to appoint to certain station or condition of life;
as, in whatever sphere one is
placed
.
Place
such over them to be rulers.
Ex. xviii. 21.
3.
To put out at interest; to invest; to loan;
as, to
place
money in a bank
.
4.
To set; to fix; to repose;
as, to
place
confidence in a friend
.
“My resolution 's placed.”
Shak.
5.
To attribute; to ascribe; to set down.
Place
it for her chief virtue.
Shakespeare
8.
to recognize or identify (a person).
[Colloq. U.S.]

Webster 1828 Edition


Place

PLACE

, n.
1.
A particular portion of space of indefinite extent, occupied or intended to be occupied by any person or thing, and considered as the space where a person or thing does or may rest or has rested, as distinct from space in general.
Look from the place where thou art. Gen.13.
The place where thou standest is holy ground. Ex.3.
Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours. .11.
David's place was empty. 1 Sam.20.
2.
Any portion of space, as distinct from space in general.
Enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place. Esth.4.
3.
Local existence.
From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. Rev.20.
4.
Separate room or apartment.
His catalogue had an especial place for sequestered divines.
5.
Seat; residence; mansion.
The Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. John.11.
6.
A portion or passage of writing or of a book.
The place of the Scripture which he read was this. Acts.8.
7.
Point or degree in order of proceeding; as in the first place; in the second place; in the last place. Hence,
8.
Rank; order of priority, dignity or importance. He holds the first place in society, or in the affections of the people.
9.
Office, employment; official station. The man has a place under the government.
Do you your office, or give up your place.
10. Ground; room.
There is no place of doubting but that it is the very same.
11. Station in life; calling; occupation; condition. All, in their several places, perform their duty.
12. A city, a town; a village. In what place does he reside? He arrived at this place in the mail coach. Gen.18.
13. In military affairs, a fortified town or post; a fortress; a fort; as a strong place; a place easily defended. The place was taken by assault.
14. A country; a kingdom. England is the place of his birth.
15. Space in general.
But she all place within herself confines.
16. Room; stead; with the sense of substitution.
And Joseph said unto them, fear not; for am I in the place of God? Gen.1.
17. Room; kind reception.
My word hath no place in you. John 8.
18. The place of the moon, in astronomy,is the part of its orbit where it is found at any given time. The place of the sun or a star, is the sign and degree of the zodiac, in which it is at any given time, or the degree of the ecliptic, reckoning from the beginning of Aries, which the star's circle of longitude cuts, and therefore coincides with the longitude of the sun or star.
To take place, to come; to happen; to come into actual existence or operation; as when we say, this or that event will or will not take place. The perfect exemption of man from calamity can never take place in this state of existence.
1.
To take the precedence or priority.
take the place, but sometimes to take place, omitting the article, is to occupy the place or station of another.
To have place, to have a station, room or seat. Such desires can have no place in a good heart.
1.
To have actual existence.
To give place, to make room or way. Give place to your superiors.
1.
To give room; to give advantage; to yield to the influence of; to listen to.
Neither give place to the devil. Eph.4.
2.
To give way; to yield to and suffer to pass away.
High place, in Scripture, a mount on which sacrifices were offered.

PLACE

,
Verb.
T.
To put or set in a particular part of space, or in a particular part of the earth, or in something on its surface; to locate; as, to place a house by the side of a stream; to place a book on a shelf; to place a body of cavalry on each flank of any army.
1.
To appoint, set, induct or establish in an office.
Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, &c. Ex.18.
It is a high moral duty of sovereigns and supreme magistrates and councils, to place in office men of unquestionable virtue and talents.
2.
To put or set in any particular rank, state or condition. Some men are placed in a condition of rank and opulence, others are placed in low or narrow circumstances; but in whatever sphere men are placed, contentment will insure to them a large portion of happiness.
3.
To set; to fix; as, to place one's affections on an object; to place confidence in a friend.
4.
To put; to invest; as, to place money in the funds or in a bank.
5.
To put out at interest; to lend; as, to place money in good hands or in good security.

Definition 2024


place

place

See also: placé and płacę

English

Alternative forms

  • pleace (some English dialects: 18th–19th centuries; Scots: until the 17th century)

Noun

place (plural places)

  1. (physical) An area; somewhere within an area.
    1. An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
    2. A group of houses.
      They live at Westminster Place.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place []
    3. An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
    4. Any area of the earth: a region.
      He is going back to his native place on vacation.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
        From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    5. The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
      We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
    6. The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
      Do you want to come over to my place later?
    7. An area of the skin.
    8. (euphemistic slang) An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
      • 1901, John Stephen Farmer & al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, Vol. V, page 220:
        Place,... (2) a jakes, or house of ease.
      • 1951, William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness, Ch. ii, page 59:
        ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’...
        ‘She means the little girls room.’
    9. (obsolete) An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
  2. A location or position in space.
    • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
      Here is the place appointed.
    • John Milton (1608-1674)
      What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
      By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
  3. A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader.
  4. (obsolete) A passage or extract from a book or document.
  5. (obsolete, rhetoric) A topic.
  6. A frame of mind.
    I'm in a strange place at the moment.
  7. (chess, obsolete) A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
  8. (social) A responsibility or position in an organization.
    1. A role or purpose; a station.
      It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
      • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
        Men in great place are thrice servants.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        I know my place as I would they should do theirs.
      • 2013 August 10, Lexington, Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
        The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.
    2. The position of a contestant in a competition.
      We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
    3. (horse-racing) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.
      to win a bet on a horse for place
    4. The position as a member of a sports team.
      He lost his place in the national team.
  9. (obsolete) A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
  10. Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
    three decimal places; the hundreds place
  11. Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
    That's what I said in the first place!
    • Mather Byles
      In the first place, I do not understand politics; in the second place, you all do, every man and mother's son of you; in the third place, you have politics all the week, pray let one day in the seven be devoted to religion []
  12. Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
    • Bible, John viii. 37
      My word hath no place in you.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

place (third-person singular simple present places, present participle placing, simple past and past participle placed)

  1. (transitive) To put (an object or person) in a specific location.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess:
      Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
    • 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:
      Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems []. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.
    He placed the glass on the table.
  2. (intransitive) To earn a given spot in a competition.
    The Cowboys placed third in the league.
    1. (intransitive, racing) To finish second, especially of horses or dogs.
      In the third race: Aces Up won, paying eight dollars; Blarney Stone placed, paying three dollars; and Cinnamon showed, paying five dollars.
  3. (transitive) To remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered.
    I've seen him before, but I can't quite place where.
  4. (transitive, passive) To achieve (a certain position, often followed by an ordinal) as in a horse race.
    Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.
  5. (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.
  6. (transitive) To arrange for or to make (a bet).
    I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.
  7. (transitive) To recruit or match an appropriate person for a job.
    They phoned hoping to place her in the management team.
  8. (sports, transitive) To place-kick (a goal).

Synonyms

  • (to earn a given spot):
  • (to put in a specific location): deposit, lay, lay down, put down
  • (to remember where and when something or someone was previously encountered):
  • (passive, to achieve a certain position): achieve, make
  • (to sing (a note) with the correct pitch): reach
  • (to arrange for, make (a bet)):
  • (to recruit or match an appropriate person):

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: eyes · hand · young · #153: place · give · ever · saw

Anagrams


French

Etymology

Old French, from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /plas/

Noun

place f (plural places)

  1. Place, square, plaza, piazza
  2. Place, space, room
  3. Place, seat

Derived terms

Verb

place

  1. first-person singular present indicative of placer
  2. third-person singular present indicative of placer
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of placer
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of placer
  5. second-person singular imperative of placer

Anagrams


Interlingua

Verb

place

  1. present of placer
  2. imperative of placer

Latin

Verb

placē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of placeō

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Latin platea.

Noun

place f (oblique plural places, nominative singular place, nominative plural places)

  1. place; location

Descendants

References


Polish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈplat͡sɛ/

Noun

place

  1. nominative plural of plac
  2. accusative plural of plac
  3. vocative plural of plac

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈplat͡ʃe]

Verb

place

  1. second-person singular imperative form of plăcea.
  2. third-person singular present tense form of plăcea.
    Îți place ție de el?
    Do you like him?

Spanish

Verb

place

  1. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of placer.
  2. Informal second-person singular () affirmative imperative form of placer.