plantation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas)
  2. noun a newly established colony (especially in the colonization of North America)
    • the practice of sending convicted criminals to serve on the Plantations was common in the 17th century
  3. noun garden consisting of a small cultivated wood without undergrowth
    grove; woodlet; orchard.

WordNet

Plan*ta"tion noun
Etymology
L. plantatio: cf. F. plantation.
Definitions
  1. The act or practice of planting, or setting in the earth for growth. R.
  2. The place planted; land brought under cultivation; a piece of ground planted with trees or useful plants; esp., in the United States and West Indies, a large estate appropriated to the production of the more important crops, and cultivated by laborers who live on the estate; as, a cotton plantation; a coffee plantation.
  3. An original settlement in a new country; a colony.
    While these plantations were forming in Connecticut. B. Trumbull.

Webster 1913