papier-mâché

Also pa·per-mâ·ché

[pey-per-muh-shey, -ma-, pa-pyey-mah-shey]

noun

1. a substance made of pulped paper or paper pulp mixed with glue and other materials or of layers of paper glued and pressed together, molded when moist to form various articles, and becoming hard and strong when dry.

adjective

1. made of papier-mâché.

2. easily destroyed or discredited; false, pretentious, or illusory.

   a papier-mâché façade of friendship.

papier-mâché

/ ˌpæpjeɪˈmæʃeɪ, papjemɑʃe /

noun

1. a hard strong substance suitable for painting on, made of paper pulp or layers of paper mixed with paste, size, etc, and moulded when moist

adjective

1. made of papier-mâché

Word History and Origins

Origin of papier-mâché¹

1745–55; < French: literally, “chewed paper”

Word History and Origins

Origin of papier-mâché¹

C18: from French, literally: chewed paper

Example Sentences

The skeleton depicted in the painting echoed the papier-mache version that hung above Kahlo's bed, according to Sotheby's.

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The scene she depicts even imitates her real life: Kahlo actually kept a smaller, papier-mâché skeleton atop her own canopy bed in Mexico City as a reassuring symbol of death’s ubiquity.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Penelope’s few possessions—including her broken tiara, her ruined princess costume, and her papier-mâché seashell—were already in her bag.

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Penelope held on to the papier-mâché seashell as long as she could.

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However, the papier-mâché seashell was carried by the wind quite a long way before landing—improbably, but not impossibly—in the scorching sands of the Sahara.

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