plaster
Americannoun
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plasters
plural
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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.
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powdered gypsum.
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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)
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plasters,
present (3rd person singular)
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plastered,
past participle, past
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plastering
present participle
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to cover (walls, ceilings, etc.) with plaster.
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to treat with gypsum or plaster of Paris.
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to lay flat like a layer of plaster.
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to daub or fill with plaster or something similar.
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to apply a plaster to (the body, a wound, etc.).
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to overspread with something, especially thickly or excessively.
a wall plastered with posters.
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Informal.
noun
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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
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an adhesive strip of material, usually medicated, for dressing a cut, wound, etc
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short for mustard plaster plaster of Paris
verb
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to coat (a wall, ceiling, etc) with plaster
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(tr) to apply like plaster
she plastered make-up on her face
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(tr) to cause to lie flat or to adhere
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(tr) to apply a plaster cast to
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slang (tr) to strike or defeat with great force
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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plasterernoun
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plasterinessnoun
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replasterverb (used with object)
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unplasterverb (used with object)
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plasterlikeadjective
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plasteryadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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plastersimple
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plasterssimple
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have plasteredperfect
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has plasteredperfect
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am plasteringprogressive
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are plasteringprogressive
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is plasteringprogressive
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have been plasteringperfect progressive
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has been plasteringperfect progressive
Past
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plasteredsimple
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had plasteredperfect
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was plasteringprogressive
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were plasteringprogressive
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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:
She suggests looking for affordable vintage oil paintings, exhibition posters or framed sketches at antique markets, then securing them with command strips so they can be removed without leaving holes in the plaster.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Telltale signs of water damage include discolored wall panels, black mold, cracking plaster or peeling paint, just to name a few.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
“No trespassing” signs plaster trees on the perimeter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
While there is hope that Rutte's tactics will pay off again in Ankara -- among some there is a sense that it's just a sticking plaster solution.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
Ben was lying on his bed studying the cracked geometry of falling plaster that hung above him.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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
He plasters them across the city in hopes of bringing ‘little expressions of joy’ to Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
All of the commonly used sanitary equipment such as paper, cotton, surgical masks, and commercial plasters exhibited intrinsic multi-pathway antibacterial activity with rapid responses against a broad spectrum of microbial species.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
She grabbed for the nearest piece of cloth to shoo them away and her heart froze with terror as she connected her daughter's evening baths with the mustard plasters that rolled onto the floor.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The sides of the shuttle buses ferrying Open fans to Royal Birkdale are plastered with a picture of Tommy Fleetwood holding the Claret Jug.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
They stood near the common room, wide smiles plastered on their faces as they watched him collect his belongings, he recalled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Sifting through the evidence, jurors put together a timeline on a whiteboard and plastered the walls with sheets of paper covered in notes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
The designs seen together — lined up on mannequins at the studio’s far end, sketches of their silhouettes plastered across the walls — feel like something out of a superhero’s wardrobe from the future.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
She looks insane, her hair sopping, plastered to her face.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
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
To say an animal is experiencing a certain feeling is not plastering a human emotion on an inhuman thing.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2025
"I have a croft house I am trying to do up, so I might do some plastering."
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2025
Beyond the additional house chores, Krasinski said Blunt had joked about another way to celebrate his new title: plastering the walls of their Brooklyn home with his magazine cover.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2024
I had turned my back on him and the sledge and the plastering, blinding, suffocating snow in order to get my breath, and when a minute later I turned around he was gone.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions 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.
