platform

PLAT'FORM, noun [plat, flat, form.] The sketch of any thing horizontally delineated; the ichnography. 1. A place laid out after any model. 2. In the military art, an elevation of earth or a floor of wood or stone, on which cannons are mounted to fire on an enemy. 3. In architecture, a row of beams or a piece of timber which supports the timber-work of a roof, and lying on the top of the wall. This in New England is called the plate. 4. A kind of terrace or broad smooth open walk on the top of a building, as in the oriental houses. 5. In ships, the orlop. [See Orlop.] 6. Any number of planks or other materials forming a floor for any purpose. 7. A plan; a scheme; ground-work. 8. In some of the New England states, an ecclesiastical constitution, or a plan for the government of churches; as the Cambridge or Saybrook platform Platic aspect, in astrology, a ray cast from one planet to another, not exactly, but within the orbit of its own light.