plaster — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Then Jill came in, And she did grin, To see Jack's paper plaster; Her mother whipt her, Across her knee, For laughing at Jack's disaster.

2. A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.

   Usage

   • Canada
   • New-Zealand
   • UK usage
   • Countable

3. A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water, sometimes with the addition of fibres, that hardens to a smooth solid and is used for coating walls and ceilings.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Synonyms

   renderstuccogrout

   Examples

   Near-synonym: stucco (dedicated term for exterior type in some dialects)

4. A similar material used for exterior walls.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Synonyms

   stucco

5. A cast made of plaster of Paris and gauze; a plaster cast.

   Usage

   • Countable

6. Plaster of Paris.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

Verb

1. To cover or coat something with plaster; to render.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   to plaster a wall

2. To apply a plaster to.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   to plaster a wound

3. To smear with some viscous or liquid substance.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   Her face was plastered with mud.

4. To hide or cover up, as if with plaster; to cover thickly.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   The radio station plastered the buses and trains with its advertisement.

5. To cover a surface extensively with something, especially posters, pictures, or notices.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   The workmen plastered the wall with pictures.

   More examples (2)

   If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.

   Lillian walked the halls wearing a shirt plastered with what she assured everyone was a memetic stun agent; it looked just like the kill agent gating access to the SCP-001 database file, but as she patiently explained to McInnis, in art, context is everything.

6. To bombard heavily or overwhelmingly; to overwhelm (with weapons fire).

   Usage

   • Figurative
   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Yeah, if you think that was bad... having, obviously, here, being people in the modern day and knowing something about the historical tactics used at the Battle of Samar, we did have, at one point, the American battleline sailing itself into a rain squall, staying in the rain squall, using large numbers of destroyers (with, obviously, all their smoke generators) to increase the cover in the rain squall and maintain it when the wet squall seemed to start dying off, and, through that, they just went "Right, activate radar, hello everybody, we can see you, you can't see us", and plastered everything in 14-and-16-inch gunfire until everything was broken, burning, and not able to fire back, and then they popped out for the coup de grâce.

7. To smooth over.

   Usage

   • Figurative
   • Transitive

Noun

1. a mixture of lime or gypsum with sand and water; hardens into a smooth solid; used to cover walls and ceilings

   Broader terms

   mixturecovering material

2. any of several gypsum cements; a white powder (a form of calcium sulphate) that forms a paste when mixed with water and hardens into a solid; used in making molds and sculptures and casts for broken limbs

   Synonyms

   plaster of Paris

   Broader terms

   calcium sulphatecalcium sulfate

3. a medical dressing consisting of a soft heated mass of meal or clay that is spread on a cloth and applied to the skin to treat inflamed areas or improve circulation etc.

   Synonyms

   poulticecataplasm

   Broader terms

   dressingmedical dressing

4. a surface of hardened plaster (as on a wall or ceiling)

   Synonyms

   plasterwork

   Broader terms

   surface

   Examples

   there were cracks in the plaster

5. adhesive tape used in dressing wounds

   Synonyms

   adhesive plastersticking plaster

   Broader terms

   adhesive tape

Verb

1. apply a heavy coat to

   Synonyms

   plaster overstick on

   Broader terms

   cover

2. cover conspicuously or thickly, as by pasting something on

   Synonyms

   beplaster

   Broader terms

   cover

   Examples

   The demonstrators plastered the hallways with posters

   She let the walls of the apartment be beplastered with stucco

3. affix conspicuously

   Broader terms

   affixstick on

   Examples

   She plastered warnings all over the wall

4. apply a plaster cast to

   Broader terms

   cover

   Examples

   plaster the broken arm

5. coat with plaster

   Synonyms

   daub

   Broader terms

   coatsurface

   Examples

   daub the wall

6. dress by covering with a therapeutic substance

   Synonyms

   poultice

   Broader terms

   dress