English edit

Etymology edit

dis- +‎ plant

Verb edit

displant (third-person singular simple present displants, present participle displanting, simple past and past participle displanted)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To remove anything from where it has been planted or placed; to drive a person from their home.
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
      [] Hang up philosophy!
      Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
      Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,
      It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the chapter)”, in The Essayes [], 3rd edition, London: [] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 123:
      I like a Plantation in a pure Soyl, that is, where People are not Displanted, to the end, to Plant others; for else it is rather an Extirpation, than a Plantation.
    • 1740, William Oldys, The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh[1], London, page 79:
      But the Ships, in which this second Colony was transported, had not been many Days returned into England, before we find Ralegh’s Thoughts diverted, for a while, from planting in a foreign Country, and engaged upon Schemes of displanting rather those powerful Enemies who were preparing to root themselves in his own.
    • 1844, Court of Common Pleas, May v. Taylor, 3 June, 1843 in The Jurist, London: V. & R. Stevens & G.S. Norton, Volume 7, Part 2, p. 515,[2]
      [] with respect to the particular question of five acres of ground being displanted of hops, the jury knew that the peculiar blight, called the wire-worm, was contagious, and that since it had got into some of the plants, the best thing that could be done for the rest of the garden, was to grub up the bine which was injured.

Synonyms edit

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References edit

  • Chambers's Etymological Dictionary, 1896, p. 131