Plough

Examples

• All

• You can't identify it as part of the Ursa Major, the Big Bear, the part that the English called the plow and we call the Big Dipper.

• Known also as the Plough and the Saucepans, each dipper is in turn part of a larger constellation.

  Fiction book (1999)

• The Plough hung very low, and the stars in Orion's belt glittered white-gold on thick midnight velvet.

  Fiction book (1995)

• In the night sky, the plough can be easily spotted among the stars of Ursa Major.

• The plough is one of the most recognizable asterisms for amateur astronomers.

Synonyms

B

Big Dipper

vsPlough

11 3.2

A pattern of seven bright stars that looks like a large ladle in the northern sky

is the same star group called by a traditional British farming name

D

Dipper

vsPlough

1 6.6

A group of seven stars forming a bowl shape used to find the North Star

refers specifically to the seven bright stars in Ursa Major

W

Wain

vsPlough

• Archaic

9.9

A group of seven bright stars in the northern sky called the Big Dipper

is the identical group but often called by the agricultural tool name

C

Charles's Wain

vsPlough

• Archaic

9.9

A group of seven bright stars that form the Big Dipper in the Ursa Major star pattern

is the modern or commonly used name rather than the archaic form

Idioms

P

to plough a lonely furrow

• UK

9.9

To work alone on something despite difficulty or opposition

Compounds

A

ard plough

• Archaic

9.9

A simple light farming tool with one blade that scratches soil without turning it, used in ancient farming

S

scratch plough

• Archaic

8.8

A simple light farm tool that loosens the top of the soil without turning it over

Surface Forms

Etymology