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:
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
Jacobs’ residence is constructed from stone and plaster, with a slate roof and copper trim.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
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
“No trespassing” signs plaster trees on the perimeter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
For this reason, people often plaster their walls and bed mats with kwacha notes to protect themselves during the night.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
And compared with the bronzes, the plasters are especially sensitive, fragile—you’re drawn to protect them, but any touch seems like it would be too much for these waifish bodies.
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
Each time this happens, even now, the nuns beam and kiss my cheek and shake my hand and give me fancy certificates that Maman plasters on the cardboard wall at home.
From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple
About the theory that she would only be engaging with these people if she were plastered?
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Had they been plastered, clad in ceramic, or built in raw concrete, they would have lent tangible weight and heft to the vaults.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
In Nanjie, countless murals of the former Chinese leader are plastered around the village.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
Even if you keep up with television, movies and music, it seems to be a lot more word of mouth than historically where things are plastered everywhere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
I guess he’s afraid of seeing Mom’s face plastered across the news again.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Both sides had poured tens of millions into the campaigns, plastering billboards across Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Branding was a big part of the event, with Pakistan dubbing the process the "Islamabad Talks", and plastering a logo combining the Pakistani, US and Iranian flags all over the city.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
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
To say an animal is experiencing a certain feeling is not plastering a human emotion on an inhuman thing.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2025
Though Cootie could barely move his arms, he’d built the house on his own, teaching himself construction as he went along, hammering the plywood walls and plastering the inside.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
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