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Plain vs Face - What's the difference?

plain | face |

As verbs the difference between plain and face

is that plain is to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface while face is .

As an adjective plain

is .

As an adverb plain

is (colloquial) simply.

As a noun plain

is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief.

plain

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • * Bible, (w) xl. 4
  • The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .
  • Simple.
  • # Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
  • #* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
  • # Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
  • # Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
  • #* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)
  • plain yet pious Christians
  • #* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)
  • the plain people
  • # (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
  • # (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
  • Obvious.
  • # Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.
  • #* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
  • In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
  • # Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
  • Open.
  • # Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • an honest mind, and plain
  • # Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
  • #* Felton
  • Our troops beat an army in plain fight.
  • Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
  • Synonyms
    * no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See also
    Antonyms
    * bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornate
    Derived terms
    * plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainness

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (colloquial) Simply
  • It was just plain stupid.
    I plain forgot.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .

    Alternative forms

    * plein

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
  • * 1815 , Sir , The Lady of the Isles , Canto IV, part IX
  • The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,
    The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To lament, bewail.
  • to plain a loss
  • * Bishop Joseph Hall
  • Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.
  • * , More Poems , XXV, lines 5-9
  • Then came I crying, and to-day,
    With heavier cause to plain ,
    Depart I into death away,
    Not to be born again.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia plain) (en noun)
  • An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
  • * Milton
  • Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .
  • * 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.
  • For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”
  • A battlefield.
  • (Arbuthnot)
  • * Shakespeare
  • Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .
  • (obsolete) A .
  • Synonyms
    * flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppe
    Antonyms
    * cliff * gorge * mountain * vale
    Derived terms
    * abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain
    See also
    * grassland * meadow

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
  • * Wither
  • We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
  • (obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English degree adverbs ----

    face

    English

    (wikipedia face)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (lb) The front part of the head, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth and the surrounding area.
  • :
  • *, chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces' were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's ' face ; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.
  • One's facial expression.
  • :
  • The public image; outward appearance.
  • :
  • The frontal aspect of something.
  • :
  • (lb) Presence; sight; front.
  • :
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
  • The directed force of something.
  • :
  • Good reputation; standing in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige. (See'' lose face''', ' save face ).
  • Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.
  • *(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
  • *:This is the man that has the face to charge others with false citations.
  • The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.
  • :
  • (lb) Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron. More generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
  • Any surface; especially a front or outer one.
  • :
  • *(Bible), (w) ii.6:
  • *:A mistwatered the whole face of the ground.
  • *(Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
  • *:Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face .
  • The numbered dial of a clock or watch.
  • (lb) The mouth.
  • :
  • (lb) Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.
  • :
  • Short for babyface. A wrestler whose on-ring persona is embodying heroic or virtuous traits. Contrast with heel.
  • :
  • (lb) The front surface of a bat.
  • (lb) The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
  • (lb) The side of the card that shows its value (as opposed to the back side, which looks the same on all cards of the deck).
  • (lb) A typeface.
  • Mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
  • *(Bible), (w) vi.25:
  • *:The Lord make his face to shine upon thee.
  • *(Bible), (w) vii.22:
  • *:My face [favour] will I turn also from them.
  • (lb) An interface.
  • *2003 May 14, Bart Leeten, Kris Meukens, JSR127 JavaServer Faces , VERSIE, p.1/6:
  • *:For clarity reasons and to stress that JavaServer Faces is not only about ‘visual’ user interfaces, we propose to use the term ‘face ’, to express what for visual interfaces is typically named a ‘screen’.
  • The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.
  • :(McElrath)
  • Synonyms

    * (part of head) countenance, visage, phiz (obsolete), phizog (obsolete) * (facial expression) countenance, expression, facial expression, look, visage * (the front or outer surface) foreside * (public image) image, public image, reputation * (of a polyhedron) facet (different specialised meaning in mathematical use), surface (not in mathematical use) * cakehole, gob, mush, piehole, trap * good guy, hero * See also

    Derived terms

    * baby face * blackfaced * facebook * face down * faceless * facelet * face-off * face-saving * face that would stop a clock * face to face, face-to-face * face up * face value * fall on one's face * feed one's face * fill one's face * game face * hatchet-faced * in face of * in one's face * in the face of * just another pretty face * lose face * manface * not just a pretty face * pizza face * pull a face * put a good face on * ratface * rock face * save face * shit-faced * stare someone in the face * suck face * whitefaced

    Verb

    (fac)
  • To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).
  • :
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:He gained also with his forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland.
  • (lb) To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
  • (lb) To deal with (a difficult situation or person).
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:I'll face / This tempest, and deserve the name of king.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today […].}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • (lb) To have the front in a certain direction.
  • :
  • (lb) To have as an opponent.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
  • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=And a further boost to England's qualification prospects came after the final whistle when Wales recorded a 2-1 home win over group rivals Montenegro, who Capello's men face in their final qualifier.}}
  • To be the batsman on strike.
  • (lb) To confront impudently; to bully.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I will neither be faced nor braved.
  • To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.
  • :
  • To line near the edge, especially with a different material.
  • :
  • To cover with better, or better appearing, material than the mass consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea, a barrel of sugar, etc.
  • (lb) To make the surface of (anything) flat or smooth; to dress the face of (a stone, a casting, etc.); especially, in turning, to shape or smooth the flat surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical surface.
  • Synonyms

    * * (have its front closest to) * (deal with) confront, deal with

    Derived terms

    * face down * face facts * face the music * face up to * in-your-face * in your face

    See also

    * (Face) * * * *

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----