plough

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a group of seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major
  2. noun a farm tool having one or more heavy blades to break the soil and cut a furrow prior to sowing
  3. verb move in a way resembling that of a plow cutting into or going through the soil

Etymology

From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Swedish and Norwegian plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.

In classic literature

Synonyms

Big Dipper, Dipper, Charles's Wain, Wain, Wagon

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