subs. (thieves’).—(1) Plunder; (2) a swindle or robbery; (3) a decoy; and (4) a place of hiding. Whence as verb. = (1) to conceal; (2) to select a person or house for swindling or robbery; (3) to utter base coin; (4) in mining, to SALT (q.v.); (5) to humbug, TO GAMMON (q.v.); and (6) to prepare cards for unfair play. Also IN PLANT = in hiding; TO SPRING A PLANT = to unearth.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785); VAUX (1819); MATSELL (1859). Hence (conjurors’) = to prepare a trick by depositing an object in charge of a conscious or unconscious confederate.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, p. 40. To PLANT, to hide.
1612. DEKKER, O per se O [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 12]. When they did seeke, then we did creepe, and PLANT in ruffe-mans low.
c. 1819. Old Song, ‘The Young Prig’ [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 82. I have a sweet eye for a PLANT.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xxxix. ‘I was away from London a week and more, my dear, on a PLANT,’ replied the Jew.
1853. C. READE, Gold! iv. 1. Levi. This dust is from Birmingham, and neither Australian nor natural. Rob. The man PLANTED it for you.
d. 1870. DICKENS The Detective Police. It wasn’t a bad PLANT that of mine, on Fikey, the man accused of forging the Sou’ Western Railway debentures.
1886. PERCY CLARKE, The ‘New Chum’ in Australia, 71. Who had not heard of the ‘new chum’ being taken in with a ‘salted claim,’ a ‘pit’ sold for a £10 note in which a nugget worth a few shillings had before been ‘PLANTED’?
1886–96. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ from the Pink ’Un [‘Honest Bill’], 50. For PLANTS he always hated, ’cept the plants upon his sill.
1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S. ix. 50. Such-and-such an author says that so-and-so was ‘burnt alive,’ followed by … righteous indignation at what never happened, while the dispassionate scholar finds the whole thing a PLANT.
5. (old).—In pl.—the feet.
Verb. (thieves’).—1. See subs. 1.
2. (old: now mostly colloquial).—To post, set, or fix in position.
1555. CAVENDISH, Cardinal Wolsey [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT,]. [He PLANTS himself near the King.]
1600. JONSON, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1. PLANT yourself there, sir: and observe me.
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. I will PLANT you two, and let the fool make a third, where he shall find the letter.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Mrs. Botherby’s Story,’ I. 148. He PLANTED himself with a firm foot in front of the image.
3. (old).—To bury.—GROSE (1785).
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Innocents at Home, 20. ‘Now, if we can get you to help PLANT him —.’ ‘Preach the funeral discourse?’
4. (footballers’).—To drive the ball into another player: hence PLANTER = a blow so given: specifically one delivered in the face.
5. (venery).—To achieve (or assist) intromission; also TO PLANT A MAN (old) = to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE.
TO PLANT WHIDS AND STOW THEM, verb. phr. (old).—To be wary of speech.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
1610. ROWLANDS, The Maunder’s Wooing [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 8]. STOW YOUR WHIDS & PLANT, and whid no more of that.
TO PLANT HOME, verb. phr. (common).—(1) To deliver (as a blow); (2) to make a point (as in argument); and (3, general) to succeed.
1886. Philadelphia Times, 6 May. Cleary PLANTED two rib-roasters.
1899. Daily Telegraph, 7 April, 8, 3. See over there! Opposition in the crowd. That roar means the opposition ’s PLANTED one ’OME.
TO WATER ONE’S PLANTS, verb. phr. (old).—To shed tears: see BIB.
