plenty, n. (a., adv.)
(ˈplɛntɪ)
Forms: see below.
[ME. plenteð, plenteth, plenté, a. OF. plentet (12th c. in Oxf. Ps.), plented, plenté, -teit, nom. -tez, pleynte, mod.F. dial. plenté, pleinté:—L. plēnitāt-em fullness, f. plēn-us full: see -ty.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 3 plenteð, 4–6 plenteth, 4–7 -ith, 5 -eythe, pleintith, 6 plentieth.
(β) 4 plentez, -es.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3709 Ðes .xii. ðider hem hauen broȝt Of ðe plenteð ðe god ðor gaf. 13.. Cursor M. 1359 (Cott.) Quen þe plentez [Fairf. plentes] sal cum o time. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xli. 31 To spille the greetnes of plentithe. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. cxxx, Plenteythe of fysshe. 1461 Plenteth [see B. 2]. 1464 Rolls of Parlt. V. 511/1 Shewyng unto hym..the pleintith of his good Lordship. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 308 b, Yet ye haue holes plentieth in your eares. 1555 Plenteth; a 1603 Plentith [see B. I. 2]. |
(γ) 3–6 plente, 4–6 -ee, 5–7 -ie, 6 -i, -ye, 5– -y.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 194 Plente of worldliche þinges. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 63 Grete plentee of wylde bestes. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 440 Put therto gode plentie of pynes. 1483 Cath. Angl. 283/2 Plenty, abundancia. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. 259 They had wynes to drynke plentye. 1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds iii. (1877) 57 Fraunce hath of them plente. 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. 9 Plenti to furnish up a trim tragedi. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 228 Plentie..must have a meane. |
(δ) Sc. 4–6 pleynte, plaintie, playntie.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxvii. (Machor) 1488 Þai wane froyt of land & se..in gret pleynte. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxiv. 93 Fair claithis and gold plaintie. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 8 Some man hath pleynte of cunnynge. a 1550 Freiris of Berwik 369 in Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) 297 And ȝe sall haif playntie. |
B. Signification. I. n.
1. a. The state of abounding or being in abundance; plentifulness, abundance. in plenty: plentiful, abundant; in abundance, plentifully, abundantly.
| 1382 [see A. α]. 1551 Turner Herbal i. D ij, Camomyle groweth..in mooste plenty of al, in hunsley hethe. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 140 Onix-stones..are brought hither in great plentie. 1622 E. Misselden Free Trade (1623) 117 By reason of the plenty of money. 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 107 In the Summer..when Lobsters be in their plenty and prime. 1786 H. Tooke Purley 68 They [abbreviations] have been introduced, in different plenty, and more or less happily, in all Languages. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos II. xxix. 307 Compliments passed in plenty. |
† b. The state of having abundance. Obs. rare.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 230/402 Heore procratour to hem cam, and was euere in plente, he brouȝte heom mete and drinke i-nouȝ, as he hadde er i-do. |
† c. Liberality. Obs. rare.
| c 1410 Sir Cleges 24 His mete was fre to euery man, That wold com and vesite hym than: He was full of plente. |
† d. Full or complete state; fullness, completeness, perfection; = fullness 2 b, 3. Obs.
| 13.. [see A. β]. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. vi. 135 (Camb. MS.) Of the whiche lyf it ne myhte nat enbrace the plente in dwellynge. 1382 Wyclif Ps. xxiii. 1 Off the Lord is the erthe, and the plente of it. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 30 He holdiþ not þe plente ne þe perfeccoun þat falliþ to his consecracoun. |
e. In proverbial phrases.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. 184 Experience wole weel schewe that plente is no deinte, and ouermyche homelines with a thing gendrith dispising toward the same thing. 1533 Bellenden Livy iii. i. (S.T.S.) I. 241 Plente generis contemptioun. 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes B ij, Plentie is no deintie, as the common saieyng is. 1600 Holland Livy iii. i. 88 But plentie, as the manner is, soone caused lothing. |
2. a. A full or abundant supply; as much as one could desire; a large quantity or number; abundance of something. Also, a large amount, a great deal.
| a 1225 [see A. γ]. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 139 In þe contrey of kanterbury mest plente of fiss is. 1388 Wyclif Acts xxii. 6 At myddai sudeynli fro heuene a greet plente of liȝt schoon aboute me. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3433 Gret plenty of pepull,—all the place full. 1555 Bonner Homilies 2 That multitude and plenteth of preachers. a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 725 By this plentith and overflow of Gods blessings. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 184 Scarcity of water, and too much plenty of scorching heate. 1756 T. in Connoisseur No. 105 ¶3 He was in a fine open country with plenty of foxes. 1857 Maurice Ep. St. John i. 5 A treatise containing plenty of errors. 1885 Fargus Slings & Arrows 192 We were in plenty of time. 1939 R. Stout Some buried Caesar xiv. 164 The bill was $66.20, which was plenty. 1973 M. Yorke Grave Matters i. vi. 35 He must have paid plenty for the place, besides what they're going to lash out in alterations. |
b. with a: an abundance (of). Now chiefly U.S.
| 1627–77 Feltham Resolves i. xi. 17 If euer I should wish a plenty; it should be for my friends, not me. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. iii. ii, That freedom Which heaven hath with a plenty made you rich in. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 401 This soil produces a plenty of wood. 1787 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 274 The river, where a plenty of several kinds of fish may be caught. 1849 Longfellow Kavanagh 71 Remember to let it have a plenty of gravel in the bottom of its cage. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes xxvi, A plenty of smoke was delivered from the council of three. 1857 Whitney Life Lang. vii. 125. |
c. Following a n. Now rare. Cf. II. 1 b.
| 13.. Coer de L. 1488 Styward,..Bye us vessel gret plenté. Dysschys, cuppys and sawsers [etc.]. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 16 Seson hit with sugur grete plenté. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa vi. 270 They haue goates great plentie. 1841 Scot. Let. in Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) I. iv. 25 There are cattle a plenty on that spot [cf. b above]. |
3. a. Abundance of the necessaries and comforts of life; a condition of general abundance; a time of abundance. horn of plenty = cornucopia.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vi. 165 Worth neuere plente amonge þe poeple þer-while my plow liggeth. 1393 Ibid. C. xviii. 93 Ther sholde be plente and pees perpetuel for euere. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 6 To regne in pees, plente, and plesaunce. c 1586, 1707, etc. Horn of plenty [see horn n. 12 b]. 1601 Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. ii. xlviii. (1631) 305 Profit is divided into the obtaining peace and plentie. 1750 Gray Elegy 63 To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. xlviii, Plenty leaps To laughing life, with her redundant horn. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 680 Here, therefore, was a plenty unknown in any other part of Munster. |
† b. concr. in pl. Things that constitute ‘plenty’; the necessaries and comforts of life; provisions; possessions. Obs.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 35 Peace, Deare Nourse of Arts, Plentyes, and ioyfull Births. 1614 C. Brooke Epithal. Dinner, The board being spread, furnisht with various plenties. 1671 Barrow Serm. Ps. cxii. 9 Wks. 1687 I. 456 Can we with any content taste our dainties, or view our plenties, while the poor man stands in sight pining with hunger? 1723 Dk. Wharton True Briton No. 52 II. 456 The exuberant Plenties of a most beneficent Climate. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as plenty-monger, plenty price (cf. famine price); plenty-scanting adj.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 215 Great plenty-scanting calamities, art thou to await, for wanton disguising thy selfe against kind. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 56 Plentymongers (that wanton away their own or Husbands Moneys). 1681 T. Jordan London's Joy 12 My Name Fructifera, The Plenty-Governess of India. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxxix. 88 That corn merchants in a famine ought to sell their corn at plenty price. |
II. adj. or quasi-adj. [app. an idiomatic use of the n.]
1. a. In predicate. Existing or present in ample quantity or number; in plenty, in abundance; abundant, plentiful, numerous. Now chiefly colloq.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23460 (Cott.) All oþerkin blisses þat mai be, All þire in þe sal be plente. c 1440 Ipomydon 1364 There lordis were grete and plente. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. cxxvi. [cxxii.] 357 At this siege euery thynge was plenty. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 23 As for sermons, they are not daintie, but very plentie. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 265 If Reasons were as plentie as Blackberries, I would giue no man a Reason vpon compulsion. 1656 H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) 6 Where money is plenty, and land scarce. 1722 De Foe Plague (1756) 100 Where they could not find such, for they were not very plenty. 1779 H. Cowley Who's Dupe? i. 1 When flowers are plenty, no body will buy 'em. 1794 N. Parry in Reg. Kentucky Hist. Soc. (1936) XXXIV. 390 Though much broken with Limestone, which is very plenty through these places. 1803 Syd. Smith Wks. (1850) 32 In the one, land is scarce, and men plenty; in the other, men are scarce, and land is plenty. 1847 Le Fanu T. O'Brien 84 Wherever kicks and cuffs are plentiest. 1850 New England Farmer II. 123 The gopher..is very plenty on the west side of Mississippi. 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. xxxiv. 368 Mosques are plenty, churches are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whisky are scarce. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 22 Poets would be plentier. 1883 R. L. Stevenson Silverado Squatters 235 It is the same, they say, in the neighbourhood of all silver mines; the nature of that precious rock being stubborn with quartz and poisonous with cinnabar. Both were plenty in our Silverado. |
b. Following a n.: = In plenty, in large quantity. Obs. exc. dial. Cf. I. 2 c.
| 13.. Cursor M. 4811 (Cott.) Bot quen þai sagh þat corn plente, Bliþer men moght neuer be. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xxvi. 253 Gold and syluer plente to spend. 1500–20 [see A. δ]. 1542 [see A. α]. 1614 Jackson Creed iii. xvi. §7 The meanest handmaid..had infallible pledges plenty of his extraordinary calling. 1818 Bentham Ch. Eng. Catech. 420 Who has conies plenty to dispose of cheap. 1844 E. B. Browning Poems II. 181 What glory then for me In such a company?—Roses plenty, roses plenty, And one nightingale for twenty? 1922 Joyce Ulysses 609, I seen icebergs plenty, growlers. 1939 ― Finnegans Wake (1964) ii. 316 Besides proof plenty, over proof. |
c. Preceding a n. = plenty of (I. 2). dial.
| 1857 E. Bandel Diary 28 May in R. P. Bieber Frontier Life in Army (1932) 138 A splendid country around us: plenty wood and water. 1878 Stevenson Inland Voy. 8 Although there are plenty other ideals that I should prefer. 1899 ‘S. Rudd’ in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 111 The water they brought was a little thick..but Dad put plenty ashes in the cask to clear it. a 1907 Mod. Sc. There were plenty folk ready to help. I know of plenty places to go to. 1934 D. L. Sayers Nine Tailors 219 There's plenty farms now with the big brewing coppers still standing. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake (1964) iii. 443 Pretty knocks, I promise him with plenty burkes for his shins. 1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair ii. 47 I've known plenty men turn queer there. 1969 G. Greene Travels with my Aunt i. ix. 93 Leopard Society in Sierra Leone. They kill plenty people. 1973 Sunday Express (Trinidad) (Suppl.) 1 Apr. 12/3 When all dem fellas gambling and heap up plenty money, we..bawl out ‘Police!’ |
† 2. Characterized by or having abundance; abundantly supplied. Obs. rare.
| 1570 Henry's Wallace viii. 990 note, Schir, be ye gydyt be me, The bowndandest [v.r. plentiest] part off Ingland ye sall se. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 4 Is this country fruitfull, and plenty of all things, or barren, and emptie? |
3. Excellent. slang.
| 1933 Fortune Aug. 47/1 In sum, Mr. Brown plays plenty trombone or, as his friend suggested, a gang o'horn. 1941 R. P. Smith So it doesn't Whistle 53 When they want to say a man's good, they say he plays plenty sax or plenty drums. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 92 Plenty, good, excellent. |
III. quasi-adv. Abundantly. colloq.
| 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 331 A leaden collar for the stick, with the hole in the collar plenty large enough. 1884 H. Collingwood Under Meteor Flag 87 They're plenty large enough. 1908 M. E. Morgan How to dress Doll (1973) xii. 85 Cut the hood..making it plenty large enough to slip on easily over Dolly's head. 1934 J. M. Cain Postman always rings Twice vi. 53, I was plenty blue around the gills. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake (1964) ii. 311 And plenty good enough, neighbour Norreys, every bit and grain. 1945 Sun (Baltimore) 13 June 8-O/7 Pavot just had the speed and the stamina, and turned it on plenty. 1956 B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) iii. 35 Benny Goodman came around plenty, too, and eventually he asked me to make my first record with him. 1970 New Yorker 3 Oct. 32/1 You are wrong—but plenty. 1973 Times 27 July 8 It was not my business. I was plenty busy with other things. 1974 R. M. Pirsig Zen & Art of Motorcycle Maintenance iii. xxvi. 306 This notebook gets plenty grease-smeared and ugly. |