plain
adj 1: clearly apparent or obvious to the mind or senses; "the
effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who sees
the parched fields"; "evident hostility"; "manifest
disapproval"; "patent advantages"; "made his meaning
plain"; "it is plain that he is no reactionary"; "in
plain view" [syn: {apparent}, {evident}, {manifest}, {patent}]
2: free from pomp or affectation; "comfortable but modest
cottages"; "a plain blue suit"; "a simple rectangular
brick building"; "a simple man with simple tastes" [syn: {modest},
{simple}]
3: not elaborate or elaborated; simple; "plain food"; "stuck to
the plain facts" [ant: {fancy}]
4: lacking patterns especially in color [syn: {unpatterned}]
[ant: {patterned}]
5: not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer
wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" [syn: {sheer}, {unmingled},
{unmixed}]
6: free from any effort to soften to disguise; "the plain and
unvarnished truth"; "the unvarnished candor of old people
and children" [syn: {unvarnished}]
7: lacking embellishment or ornamentation; "a plain hair
style"; "unembellished white walls"; "functional
architecture featuring stark unornamented concrete" [syn:
{unembellished}, {unornamented}]
8: lacking stylistic embellishment; "a literal description";
"wrote good but plain prose"; "a plain unadorned account
of the coronation"; "a forthright unembellished style"
[syn: {literal}, {unembellished}]
9: comprehensible to the general public; "written for the
popular press in plain nontechnical language" [syn: {popular}]
10: lacking in physical beauty or proportion; "a homely child";
"several of the buildings were downright homely"; "a
plain girl with a freckled face" [syn: {homely}]
n 1: extensive tract of level open land; "they emerged from the
woods onto a vast open plain"; "he longed for the fields
of his youth" [syn: {field}, {champaign}]
2: a basic knitting stitch [syn: {knit}, {knit stitch}, {plain
stitch}]
adv : unmistakably; "the answer is obviously wrong"; "she was in
bed and evidently in great pain"; "he was manifestly
too important to leave off the guest list"; "it is all
patently nonsense"; "she has apparently been living
here for some time"; "I thought he owned the property,
but apparently not"; "You are plainly wrong"; (`plain'
is often used informally for `plainly' as in "he is
plain stubborn") [syn: {obviously}, {evidently}, {manifestly},
{patently}, {apparently}, {plainly}]
v : express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness;
"My mother complains all day"; "She has a lot to kick
about" [syn: {complain}, {kick}, {sound off}, {quetch}, {kvetch}]
[ant: {cheer}]