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Webster 1913 Edition

Plaint

Plaint

,
Noun.
[OE.
plainte
,
pleynte
, F.
plainte
, fr. L.
plangere
,
planctum
(
plancta
, fem. p. p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf.
Complain
,
Plague
,
Plangent
.]
1.
Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament.
Chaucer.
“The Psalmist’s mournful plaint.”
Wordsworth.
2.
An accusation or protest on account of an injury.
There are three just grounds of war with Spain: one of
plaint
, two upon defense.
Bacon.
3.
(Law)
A private memorial tendered to a court, in which a person sets forth his cause of action; the exhibiting of an action in writing.
Blackstone.

Webster 1828 Edition

Plaint

PLAINT

,
Noun.
[L. plango, to strike, to beat, to lament, whence complaint; Gr. to strike, from the root disused, whence, a stroke; L. plaga, Eng. plague.]
1.
Lamentation; complaint; audible expression of sorrow.
From inward grief
His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd.
2.
Complaint; representation made of injury or wrong done.
There are three just grounds of war with Spain; one of plaints; two upon defense.
3.
In law, a private memorial tendered to a court, in which the person sets forth his cause of action.
4.
In law, a complaint; a formal accusation exhibited by a private person against an offender for a breach of law or a public offense.

Definition 2024

plaint

plaint

English

Noun

plaint ‎(plural plaints)

  1. (poetic or archaic) A lament or woeful cry.
    • 1827, Maria Elizabeth Budden, Nina, An Icelandic Tale, page 11:
      In the first paroxysm of his grief, Ingolfr exclaimed, (what sorrowing heart has not echoed his plaint?) that he could never more taste of joy.
    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 75,
      His shriek was as feeble as the plaint of a grass-stalk in a storm.
  2. A complaint.
    • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:
      she seemed to repeat, though with perceptible resignation, her plaint of a moment before. ‘Your father, darling, is a very odd person indeed.’
  3. (archaic or Britain law) An accusation.
    Once the plaint had been made there was nothing that could be done to revoke it.

Related terms

External links

  • plaint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • plaint in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Middle French plaint, pleint, from Old French plaint, pleint, from Latin planctus.

Verb

plaint m ‎(feminine singular plainte, masculine plural plaints, feminine plural plaintes)

  1. past participle of plaindre

Related terms

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English plainte, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman plainte ‎(“lamentation”), plaint ‎(“lament”), and Old French pleinte ‎(“lamentation”), pleint ‎(“lament”) (modern French plainte), from Medieval Latin plancta ‎(“plaint”), from Latin planctus ‎(“a beating of the breast in lamentation, beating, lamentation”), from Latin plango ‎(“I beat the breast, I lament”); see plain.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /pleɪnt/
  • Rhymes: -eɪnt

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