plains

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of plain.

   The wide plains stretched out beyond the river.

   Herds of bison once roamed the open plains.

   Note

   Mostly the plural of open land: wide, low, sparsely wooded stretches, usually grassy, and by extension any broad flat expanse, even of water. Older writing can use it for battlefields, an archaic use. Poetry occasionally uses it for laments, the rare noun that sits beside the verb of lamenting. An obsolete spelling also let plain stand for plane, the flat geometric surface.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of plain.

   Note

   A verb form that belongs to poetry, where plain means to lament or bewail. It works with or without an object: one plains a loss, or simply plains for it. Older English used it reflexively, plaining oneself, to mean complaining. Earlier still, the verb meant to level ground or to make something clear, uses now entirely obsolete.

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