plane table

¹ American  

Or plain table

noun

Surveying.

1. a drawing board mounted on a tripod, used in the field, with an alidade, for surveying tracts of land.

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plane-table ² American  

[pleyn-tey-buhl] / ˈpleɪnˌteɪ bəl /

verb (used with or without object)

plane-tabled, plane-tabling

1. to survey with a plane table.

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plane table British  

noun

1. a surveying instrument consisting of a drawing board mounted on adjustable legs, and used in the field for plotting measurements directly

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verb

1. to survey (a plot of land) using a plane table

Etymology

Origin of plane table¹

First recorded in 1600–10

Origin of plane-table²

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

The word is found in some older English Dictionaries, and in France and Italy is still applied to the traversing index of a plane table or of a sextant.

From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Yule, Henry

Additionally I had had some experience in plane table surveying but none of these attributes had a place in the kind of life I envisioned.��

From Coming of Age: 1939-1946 by Cox, John

Theodolite and plane table work are not suited to very cold climates.

From South with Scott by Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, baron