DCHP-1 Online
plain(s) 
1 n. extensive rolling grasslands, specifically those found in western Canada; also, the region covered by these grasslands.
See also: prairie (def. 2a)
- 1775 (1951) In the Afternoon a Canoe with fourteen of the Pedlers men arrived on their way to the upper Settlement in Sas-kach-i-wan River, to be sent into the Plains to be supported. . . .
- 1784-1812 (1916) By a Plain I mean lands bearing grass, but too short for the Scythe; where the grass is long enough for the Scythe, and of which Hay can be made, I name meadows.
- 1859 The prey they fail to find elsewhere is supplied by the buffalo slaughterings on the Plains, where thousands of indifferent carcasses are left every summer and autumn by the hunters.
- 1958 . . . these scrubs [wild horses] of the plains are mostly too runty, too unreliable and too fierce to slip profitably into any man's harness or saddle.
2 n. Hist. an open space in wooded country or one where trees are few.
See also: opening
- 1799 Part of these valuable lands lie in the plains and part in the woods.
- 1825 (1832) It is a dry sandy soil, thinly wooded with low whiteoaks, and is what is here termed plains.
- 1926 At this time . . . there was but one inhabitant of Peterborough [1825], Adam Scott, who had a mill on the Plains. . . .
- 1775 (1951) In the Afternoon a Canoe with fourteen of the Pedlers men arrived on their way to the upper Settlement in Sas-kach-i-wan River, to be sent into the Plains to be supported. . . .