Added 9 October 2026

plough

/plaʊ/ noun

In Latin: aratrum Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about plough at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting.
The horse-drawn plough had a tremendous impact on agriculture.
Any of several other tools or implements that cut and push material. Ellipsis of snowplough.
It's been three hours since a plough came through here, and now you can hardly even tell that it did! [the snow keeps falling heavily]
Ellipsis of snowplough.
It's been three hours since a plough came through here, and now you can hardly even tell that it did! [the snow keeps falling heavily]

To use a plough on soil to prepare for planting.
I've still got to plough that field.
To use a plough.
Some days I have to plough from sunrise to sunset.
To move with force.
Trucks ploughed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.

From Middle English plouh, plow, plugh(e), plough(e), plouw, from Old English plōh (“hide of land, ploughland”) and Old Norse plógr (“plough (the implement)”), both from Proto-Germanic *plōgaz, *plōguz (“plough”). Cognate with Scots pleuch, plou, North Frisian plog, West Frisian ploech, Low German Ploog, Dutch ploeg, Russian плуг (plug), German Pflug, Danish plov, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish plog, Icelandic plógur. Replaced Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”); see sullow.