plaque

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small card representing an amount of money, used for betting in casinos; a sort of gaming chip.

   But on this June evening when Bond walked through the 'kitchen' into the salle privée, it was with a sensation of confidence and cheerful anticipation that he changed a million francs into plaques of fifty mille and took a seat […]

2. 2
   noun

   In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system: any flat, thin musical instrument.

   blown plaques

3. 3
   noun

   An abnormal accumulation of material in or on an organ of the body, often associated with disease.

   amyloid plaque

4. 4
   noun

   a memorial made of brass

5. 5
   noun

   (pathology) a small abnormal patch on or inside the body

6. 6
   noun

   Any flat, thin piece of clay, ivory, metal, etc., used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a dish, plate, slab, etc., hung upon a wall; also, a smaller decoration worn by a person, such as a brooch.

7. 7
   noun

   A piece of flat metal with writing on it, attached to a building, monument, or other structure to remind people of a person or an event.

8. 8
   noun

   A clearing in a bacterial lawn caused by a virus.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French plaque (“plate, sheet (of metal); slab (of marble); bacteria on teeth”), from French plaquer, Middle French plaquer (“to plate”), from Middle Dutch placken (“to patch, beat metal into a thin plate”), from placke (“disk, patch, stain”), from Old Dutch *plagga (“patch”), from Proto-Germanic *plaggą (“patch”). The word is cognate with Middle Low German placke, plagge (“small stain, scraps, rags, thin grass”), German Placken (“spot, patch”), Saterland Frisian plak, plakke (“a blow, slap”), Swedish plagg (“clothing, garment”). Compare plack.