plaster
Americannoun
-
plasters
plural
-
a composition, as of lime or gypsum, sand, water, and sometimes hair or other fiber, applied in a pasty form to walls, ceilings, etc., and allowed to harden and dry.
-
powdered gypsum.
-
a solid or semisolid preparation spread upon cloth, plastic, or other material and applied to the body, especially for some healing purpose.
verb (used with object)
-
plasters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
plastered,
past participle, past
-
plastering
present participle
-
to cover (walls, ceilings, etc.) with plaster.
-
to treat with gypsum or plaster of Paris.
-
to lay flat like a layer of plaster.
-
to daub or fill with plaster or something similar.
-
to apply a plaster to (the body, a wound, etc.).
-
to overspread with something, especially thickly or excessively.
a wall plastered with posters.
-
Informal.
noun
-
a mixture of lime, sand, and water, sometimes stiffened with hair or other fibres, that is applied to the surface of a wall or ceiling as a soft paste that hardens when dry
-
an adhesive strip of material, usually medicated, for dressing a cut, wound, etc
-
short for mustard plaster plaster of Paris
verb
-
to coat (a wall, ceiling, etc) with plaster
-
(tr) to apply like plaster
she plastered make-up on her face
-
(tr) to cause to lie flat or to adhere
-
(tr) to apply a plaster cast to
-
slang (tr) to strike or defeat with great force
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
plasterernoun
-
plasterinessnoun
-
replasterverb (used with object)
-
unplasterverb (used with object)
-
plasterlikeadjective
-
plasteryadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
plastersimple
-
plasterssimple
-
have plasteredperfect
-
has plasteredperfect
-
am plasteringprogressive
-
are plasteringprogressive
-
is plasteringprogressive
-
have been plasteringperfect progressive
-
has been plasteringperfect progressive
Past
-
plasteredsimple
-
had plasteredperfect
-
was plasteringprogressive
-
were plasteringprogressive
-
had been plasteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plaster
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English, from Medieval Latin plastrum “plaster” (both medical and building senses), aphetic variant of Latin emplastrum, from Greek émplastron “salve,” alteration of émplaston, neuter of émplastos “daubed”; see em- 2, -plast
Explanation
Plaster is a building material that's applied as a wet paste and dries very hard and smooth. The walls inside your house might be made of plaster. New houses typically have interior walls made of drywall, rather than plaster, but older homes usually have many plaster surfaces. Plaster starts as a mixture of lime, gypsum, sand, or cement that's mixed with water. This soft substance is applied to surfaces where it hardens — either for walls, works of art, or as casts used to hold broken bones steady. In Britain, a plaster is also a sticky bandage, while an American would call this a Band-Aid.
Vocabulary lists containing plaster
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nikos Mavroudis, a 17-year-old high school student in Athens' Exarchia neighbourhood, said the money could be better spent on his school, where chunks of plaster are falling.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
Over time they've been grinding a little bit here and there but it's just putting a plaster on the big problem.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Using about $500 of his savings, he paid two guys he found on Craigslist to plaster the city with more than 300 flyers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Officially, it’s closed because a section of the Grand Foyer ceiling gave way in a storm, plaster crashing to the floor, and the building needed to be shut down for safety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Johns has used the same plaster cast four times, which lends the faces a curious anonymity.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
In the plasters, his details are sharper, his jagged surfaces dangerous, his faces more emotive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Even North Korea, which plasters pictures of leader Kim Jong Un across the country and demands reverence, does not feature him in the passport, which instead depicts sacred Mount Paektu.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
"Parents up and down the country would be delighted to see the prime minister act decisively to quell the tsunami of harm children face online, but sticking plasters will not do the job."
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2025
He plasters them across the city in hopes of bringing ‘little expressions of joy’ to Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
The shampoos and lotions and balms that used to be at the back of the store I shift to shelves near the pharmacy, so that people filling prescriptions can also buy plasters and ointments.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
About the theory that she would only be engaging with these people if she were plastered?
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Antonella Nistorescu displayed horrific video images of the crash with the word “preventable” plastered across the screen in red letters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
The pictures plastered outside the truck made Montgomery feel like she was in an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
In Nanjie, countless murals of the former Chinese leader are plastered around the village.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
Shifa’s hair was plastered down over her face and she was shivering.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
Live wires on her meter were exposed and the plastering close to the outside wall to which it was attached, had come away, leaving it vulnerable to wet weather.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
Since early Thursday, BNP backers started gathering in the capital, plastering the streets with banners and festoons bearing images of Rahman.
From Barron's ● Dec. 25, 2025
At home in this milieu, Parker mastered the art of grassroots promotion, of pulling in large crowds by plastering the town with loud, hyperbolic placards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2025
To say an animal is experiencing a certain feeling is not plastering a human emotion on an inhuman thing.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2025
“Since when is plastering a bumper sticker on something that serious of a crime?”
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
