Plantation \Plan*ta"tion\, n. [L. plantatio: cf. F. plantation.]

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)