planting

Pluralplantings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of plant.

   The crew was planting seedlings before the first frost arrived.

   Planting cover crops in fall protects the topsoil over winter.

   Note

   Unlike the nouns, the verb form carries every meaning of plant, not just the gardener's. It covers planting evidence on a suspect, planting your feet and planting an idea in someone's mind. As a gerund it still takes a direct object (planting cover crops). That sets it apart from the noun for the act, which needs of: the planting of the wheat.

   The detective was accused of planting evidence in the suspect's car.

   She stood in the current, planting her feet against the pull of the water.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of setting a plant or seed into the ground so that it can take root and grow.

   Heavy rain delayed the planting of the wheat by nearly two weeks.

   Proper spacing during planting gives each seedling room to develop.

   Similarsowing, seeding

   Oppositeharvesting, reaping

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A plant or cutting that has recently been set in the ground.

   A late frost killed several of the tender plantings in the bed.

   She staked every young planting to keep it upright in the wind.

   Similarseedling, transplant, cutting

   Note

   The countable result of the work rather than the work itself. A planting is something you can point to, count and carry, so it takes a plural: plantings. It suits young stock that is still settling in, such as a potted cutting handed over as a house-warming gift. Compare the act of planting, which names the job and not the plant.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A plantation; a large tract of cultivated land where crops or trees are grown.

   Workers harvested coffee across the hillside planting from dawn until dusk.

   After the war, the old planting along the river road was broken up and sold off in parcels.

   Similarplantation, estate, farm

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