To serve or dish food into a plate, bowl, etc.; to put food onto a dish for serving.
お皿にカレーを盛ってください。
Please put the curry on the plate.
この店はご飯をたっぷり盛ってくれる。
This shop gives generous portions of rice.
サラダをきれいに盛ると食欲がわく。
If you plate the salad nicely, it stimulates the appetite.
To pile up or heap; to fill or stack something up.
トラックに段ボールをたくさん盛った。
We piled a lot of cardboard boxes onto the truck.
机の上に書類が山のように盛ってある。
There are piles of documents on the desk.
To administer medicine or poison; to dose someone (often used for putting a drug into someone's drink/food).
酔わせてから酒に睡眠薬を盛ったと疑われている。
He is suspected of drugging the drink with a sleeping pill after getting her drunk.
薬を一回分ずつ小袋に盛っておく。
I portioned the medicine into single-dose packets.
To put information into a report or statement; often used to mean inflating or padding numbers/data.
売上をよく見せようと数字を盛ってはいけない。
You shouldn't pad the numbers to make sales look better.
彼は報告書に都合のいい事実だけを盛った。
He put only convenient facts into the report.
To mark or graduate a scale (e.g., adding scale markings to an instrument such as a thermometer).
古い測定器に新しい目盛りを盛って再調整した。
They regraduated the old measuring instrument by adding new scale markings and recalibrated it.
Colloquially, to exaggerate (a story) or to heavily apply makeup.
彼はいつも自分の武勇伝を盛るから話半分で聞いたほうがいい。
He always exaggerates his exploits, so take his stories with a grain of salt.
週末は化粧を盛ってクラブに行った。
On the weekend I put on heavy makeup and went to the club.