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Webster 1913 Edition

Plenty

Plen′ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Plenties
(#)
, in
Shak.
[OE.
plentee
,
plente
, OF.
plenté
, fr. L.
plenitas
, fr.
plenus
full. See
Full
,
Adj.
, and cf.
Complete
.]
Full or adequate supply; enough and to spare; sufficiency; specifically, abundant productiveness of the earth; ample supply for human wants; abundance; copiousness.
“Plenty of corn and wine.”
Gen. xxvii. 28.
“Promises Britain peace and plenty.”
Shak.
Houses of office stuffed with
plentee
.
Chaucer.
The teeming clouds Descend in gladsome
plenty
o’er the world.
Thomson.
Syn. – Abundance; exuberance. See
Abundance
.

Plen′ty

,
Adj.
Plentiful; abundant.
[Obs. or Colloq.]
If reasons were as
plenty
as blackberries.
Shakespeare
Those countries where shrubs are
plenty
.
Goldsmith.

Webster 1828 Edition

Plenty

PLEN'TY

,
Noun.
[from L. plenus.] Abundance; copiousness; full or adequate supply; as, we have a plenty of corn for bread; the garrison has a plenty of provisions. Its application to persons, as a plenty of buyers or sellers, is inelegant.
1.
Fruitfulness; a poetic use.
The teeming clouds
Descend in gladsome plenty o'er the world.

PLEN'TY

,
Adj.
Plentiful; being in abundance.
Where water is plenty--
If reasons were as plenty as blackberries.
In every country where liquors are plenty.
The common sorts of fowls and the several gallinaceous species are plenty.
A variety of other herbs and roots which are plenty.
They seem formed for those countries where shrubs are plenty and water scarce.
When laborers are plenty, their wages will be low.
In the country, where wood is more plenty, they make their beams stronger.
[The use of this word as an adjective seems too well authorized to be rejected. It is universal in common parlance in the United States.]

Definition 2024

Plenty

Plenty

See also: plenty

English

Proper noun

Plenty

  1. A village in Saskatchewan, Canada.
  2. A town in Tasmania, Australia.
  3. A town in Victoria, Australia.

plenty

plenty

See also: Plenty

English

Noun

plenty ‎(countable and uncountable, plural plenties)

  1. A more than adequate amount.
    We are lucky to live in a land of peace and plenty.
    • 1798, Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population:
      During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that population is at a stand. In the mean time the cheapness of labour, the plenty of labourers, and the necessity of an increased industry amongst them, encourage cultivators to employ more labour upon their land, to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage

Usage notes

While some dictionaries analyse this word as a noun,[1][2] others analyse it as a pronoun,[3] or as both a noun and a pronoun.[4][5][6]

Derived terms

Synonyms

Translations

Pronoun

plenty

  1. More than enough.
    I think six eggs should be plenty for this recipe.

Usage notes

See the notes about the noun.

Adverb

plenty ‎(not comparable)

  1. More than sufficiently.
    This office is plenty big enough for our needs.
  2. (colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very.
    She was plenty mad at him.
    • 26 June 2014, A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together
      Seeing clichés mimicked this skillfully is plenty hilarious.

Translations

Determiner

plenty

  1. (nonstandard) much, enough
    There'll be plenty time later for that
  2. (nonstandard) many
    Get a manicure. Plenty men do it.

Adjective

plenty ‎(comparative more plenty, superlative most plenty)

  1. (obsolete) plentiful
    • 1597, Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene IV:
      if reasons were as plenty as blackberries
    • 1836, The American Gardener's Magazine and Register, volume 2, page 279:
      Radishes are very plenty. Of cabbages a few heads of this year's crop have come to hand this week, and sold readily at quotations; [...]

Translations

Related terms

Anagrams

References

  1. ↑ “plenty” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
  2. ↑ “plenty” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
  3. ↑ Macmillan
  4. ↑ oxforddictionaries.com
  5. ↑ Harrap's essential English Dictionary (1996)
  6. ↑ Heinemann English Dictionary (2001)

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman plenté, from Old French plenté, from Latin plenitatem, accusative of plenitas ‎(“fullness”), from plenus ‎(“complete, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós ‎(“full”) (English full, via Proto-Germanic). Related from Latin to complete, deplete, replete.

Pronunciation

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