plainer

Pluralplainers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of plain.

   The second design was plainer than the first and far easier to read.

   Her remodeled kitchen looked plainer than the cluttered one she grew up with.

   Note

   An ordinary -er comparative, used when two things are weighed against each other: the plainer of two designs, plainer than before. Its superlative is plainest. Watch the phrase "the plainer": in "of the two, she was certainly the plainer," it is still the adjective with a noun understood. It is not the word for an out-of-uniform officer, which is a true noun that takes a plural, plainers.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A police officer who carries out duties in ordinary clothes rather than a uniform.

   The plainer flashed his badge before the pickpocket could slip away.

   Several plainers mingled with the protesters to spot the agitators.

   Similarplainclothesman

   Note

   A clipped word built from plainclothes with -er added. It belongs to crime fiction, where Alan Parks, Liam McIlvanney and Niall Illingworth all use it. It counts like any job noun: a plainer, the plainer, a huddle of plainers. It is not limited to men. In Illingworth's Hard Rain, Cold Hearts, a guy and a girl "make ideal plainers" because people take them for a couple.

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