ploughshare, plow-
(ˈplaʊʃɛə(r))
[Cf. MFl. ploegh-schere, Du. ploeg-schaar.]
1. The large pointed blade of a plough, which, following the coulter, cuts a slice of earth, and passes it on to the mould-board; = share.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 136 Men schal welle hor swerde into plowgh-schares. 1535 Coverdale Micah iv. 3 Of their swerdes they shal make plowshares, and sythes off their speares. 1568 Grafton Chron. I. 180 If she will go bare footed for her selfe ouer foure ploughe shares,..brennyng and fire hote. a 1639 Wotton Descr. Countrey's Recreat. iv. in Reliq. (1651) 532 Wounds are never found, Save what the Plow-share gives the ground. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc iii. 540 O'er red-hot plough-shares make me skip to please Your dotard fancies! 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 23 A government which shall have its soldiers of the plough⁓share, as well as its soldiers of the sword. |
| fig. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 168 Final ruin fiercely drives Her ploughshare o'er creation! 1865 Swinburne Atalanta 107 Thou, I say, Althæa, since my father's ploughshare, drawn Through fatal seedland of a female field, Furrowed thy body. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. ix. 301 It is the snout of a glacier that must act the part of a ploughshare. |
2. Anat. The vomer; = ploughshare bone (a).
3. attrib. and Comb., as ploughshare instinct, ploughshare line, ploughshare vaulting; ploughshare-shaped adj.; ploughshare bone Anat., (a) the vomer; (b) the pygostyle of a bird.
| 1831 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 778/2 The vomer or plough⁓share bone is symmetrical,..forming the posterior part of the nasal partition. 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 291/2 The Ischio-coccygeus..extending..to the sides of the..plough⁓share bone. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 18 The terminal ploughshare-shaped vertebrae. a 1878 Sir G. G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) II. 187 This twisting of the surface has received the very appropriate name of ploughshare vaulting. 1881 Mivart Cat 465 The caudal vertebræ do not end in a ‘ploughshare bone’. |