Pronunciations (6)
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/ˈplæstɪk/
Pronunciation notes
- UK
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[ˈpʰlastɪk]
Pronunciation notes
- UK
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/ˈplæstɪk/
Pronunciation notes
- US
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[ˈpʰlæstɪk]
Pronunciation notes
- US
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ˈplæstɪk
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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ˈplæstɪk
Pronunciation notes
- US
Noun
A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too.
Reducing plastic waste is a crucial problem for today’s environment, and whether it’s recyclable and biodegradable phone cases or sustainable fashion, there are plenty of eco-friendly products that can help you reduce your footprint.
These endocrine disruptors are everywhere: plastics, shampoos, cosmetics, cushions, pesticides, canned foods and A.T.M. receipts. They often aren’t on labels and can be difficult to avoid.
Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
Usage- Colloquial
- Countable
- metonymically
- Uncountable
- Examples
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I knew the war between cash and credit cards was over and plastic had won, hands down, when even Mickey D's started taking credit and debit cards.
The surgeon checks your plastic on the phone / a Casio concerto entertains you while you hold
More examples (1)
It's all about fast cars and cussing each other / but it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic / and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic.
Insincerity; fakeness.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Slang
- Uncountable
A person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population; a narcissistic, affected person.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Cady: You know I couldn't invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic. Janis: Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore. You're plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic.
Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic.
An instance of plastic surgery.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Examples
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Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it.
A sculptor, moulder.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
Any solid but malleable substance.
Usage- Archaic
- Countable
- Uncountable
Synonym of Plastic Paddy.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
Adjective
Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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More examples (2)
the rage […] betook itself at last to certain missile weapons; which, though from their plastic nature they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady.
[A]nd it is highly probable that along with more splendid habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction.
Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.
Man tracks and dog tracks, they left a clear imprint on its plastic surface, and came out on an open beach, stretching a mile away to another headland.
More examples (2)
While a historical woman obviously dwells at the root of this whole phenomenon, her image has been plastic, allowing the Christian imagination to create widely different Marian symbols and theologies in relation to spiritual and social needs.
while the broad pattern of connections between brain regions is similar in every healthy human brain, their details – their number, size and strength – are thought to underpin our individuality, as synapses are ‘plastic’, shaped by experience.
Producing tissue.
Usage- Archaic
Creative, formative.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
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Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect
See plastic Nature working to this end.
Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
Made of plastic.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.
A green plastic watering can / For a fake Chinese rubber plant / In a fake plastic earth / That she bought from a rubber man / In a town full of rubber plans / To get rid of itself
Inferior or not the real thing.
Usage- Derogatory
- Figurative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie
More examples (1)
People always try to say that we're garage rock, but that scene is so plastic. Some dude in a band has tight jeans, dyed black hair, and a starving girlfriend with bangs, and people call it indie rock. It's so gross.
Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...
Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and glossy flawlessness.
Usage- Figurative
- Informal
- of a person
- Examples
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He kissed the white woman once, and it was so artificial, so plastic (that's the word, plastic) that one wondered why did they bother at all.
Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go
More examples (6)
Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes
In fact it seems as though there are two kinds of people in the world: real people and plastic people, as the Flower Children used to say.
But I don't think she would be happy in Los Angeles — it's so plastic and cheap and they expect the women to be whores to get anywhere.
We're plastic but we'll still have fun!
And further, I don't see anything in American life – for myself – to aspire to. Nothing at all. It's all so very false. So shallow, so plastic, so morally and ethically corrupt.
The Clash tour was pretty tough. Their fans mostly hated Suicide. A lot of them were plastic punks who just thought punk rock was guitars, safety pins and bin bags.
Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.
Usage- Informal
- of an individual bird
- Examples
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A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]
Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.
Usage- Informal
- of a species or individual bird
- Examples
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I was checking into my motel while a Red-whiskered Bulbul called outside – a Queensland plastic rarity which was somewhat amusing.
Adjective
capable of being molded or modeled (especially of earth or clay or other soft material)
- Examples
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plastic substances such as wax or clay
capable of being influenced or formed
- Synonyms
- Examples
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the plastic minds of children
a pliant nature
forming or capable of forming or molding or fashioning
- Examples
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a formative influence
a formative experience
More examples (1)
the plastic forces of nature
Noun
generic name for certain synthetic or semisynthetic materials that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or filaments or used for making e.g. coatings and adhesives
- Broader terms
a card (usually plastic) that assures a seller that the person using it has sufficient means of payment and that the issuer will see to it that the seller receives payment for the merchandise delivered
- Synonyms
- Examples
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do you take plastic?