plate

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A smooth, flat, relatively thin, rigid body of uniform thickness.
• noun A sheet of hammered, rolled, or cast metal.
• noun A very thin applied or deposited coat of metal.
• noun A flat piece of metal forming part of a machine.
• noun A flat piece of metal on which something is engraved.
• noun A license plate.
• noun A thin piece of metal used for armor.
• noun Armor made of such pieces.
• noun A sheet of metal, plastic, rubber, paperboard, or other material prepared for use as a printing surface, such as an electrotype or a stereotype.
• noun A print of a woodcut, lithograph, or other engraved material, especially when reproduced in a book.
• noun A full-page book illustration, often in color and printed on paper different from that used for text pages.
• noun Photography A light-sensitive sheet of glass or metal on which a photographic image can be recorded.
• noun Dentistry A thin metallic or plastic support fitted to the gums to anchor artificial teeth.
• noun Architecture In wood-frame construction, a horizontal member, capping the exterior wall studs, upon which the roof rafters rest.
• noun Baseball Home plate.
• noun A shallow dish in which food is served or from which it is eaten.
• noun The contents of such a dish.
• noun A whole course served on such a dish.
• noun Service and food for one person at a meal.
• noun Household articles, such as hollowware, covered with a precious metal, such as silver or gold.
• noun A dish passed among the members of a group or congregation for the collection of offerings.
• noun A dish, cup, or other article of silver or gold offered as a prize.
• noun A contest, especially a horserace, offering such a prize.
• noun A thin cut of beef from the brisket.
• noun A thin flat layer or scale, as that of a fish.
• noun A platelike part, organ, or structure, such as that covering some reptiles.
• noun An electrode, as in a storage battery or capacitor.
• noun The anode in an electron tube.
• noun Informal A schedule of matters to be dealt with.
• transitive verb To coat or cover with a thin layer of metal.
• transitive verb To cover with armor plate.
• transitive verb Printing To make a stereotype or electrotype from.
• transitive verb To give a glossy finish to (paper) by pressing between metal sheets or rollers.
• transitive verb To arrange (food) on a plate, as for serving.
• transitive verb Baseball To cause (a run) to be scored or (a runner) to cross home plate, as by a hit.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In bacteriology, the film of agar-agar or gelatin poured upon a glass plate or into a Petri dish for the purpose of separating specific organisms. See plating, 3. Also called poured plate.
• noun A butchers' term for the long, thin cut of beef, weighing usually about 60 pounds, and including the brisket, the navel piece, and the thinner inside piece called the skirt.
• noun In geology, a wide area of flat and undisturbed strata.
• noun In polychætons annelids, one of the chitinous jaws.
• noun In the Brachiopoda, one of the two erect shelly plates which support the teeth of the ventral valve and rest on the bottom of that valve. By their convergence and union they form the spondylium in some species, and this structure may be supported on a single median plate or septum. See spondylium.
• noun In dental surgery, a plate of metal, hard rubber, or other material, molded to the shape of the roof of the mouth, which serves as a support for false teeth.