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(ethology, sheep,Australia,New Zealand) A lamb whose mother has died and which has transferred its attachment to an object, such as a bush or rock, in the locality.
This is a “placer” sheep, as it is called. The prerequisites to this condition are that the young sheep must be still nursing, but must have begun to nibble grass. It must be the young of a mother that has been somewhat isolated, away from the corral and away from the herd, by herself out on the prairie. Now, when the mother dies, the lamb remains close to the mother′s body[…].
1971, American Society of Animal Science. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 32, Pages 601-1298, page 1281,
In Australia “placer” lambs are also destroyed, for these too are of little use; they will return constantly to one place, not staying with the flock.
(mining)alluvial; occurring in a deposit of sand or earth on a river-bed or bank, particularly with reference to precious metals such as gold or silver
1995, Paul T. Craddock, Early Metal Mining and Production, page 110:
Placer gold comes from the weathering of the primary veins releasing the gold to be transported by water action and concentrated in gravel or sand beds.
2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, published 2004, page 46:
Since time immemorial, people found that they could extract the gold from placer deposits by sifting the fine-grained material through a mesh: the technique of panning.
2008, Tanyo Ravicz, Of Knives and Men: Alaskans, page 77:
^ 2011, Jonathon Green, Crooked Talk: Five Hundred Years of the Language of Crime, page 104— The 20th-century buyer is self-explanatory, while the placer is a middle-man who places stolen goods with a purchaser.
The third-person forms with the stems plug- and pleg- (plugo, pluguiera, plega/plegue, pluguieron, pluguieran, etc.) are archaic. In modern literature they may be used in place of forms such as plació, plazca and placiera with the intention of recalling old-fashioned style.[1]