plaster
Americannoun
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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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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:
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
Early in his career Noguchi was identified as a sculptor, known for modernist abstractions—enigmas in wood, stone, metals, plaster, ceramic and aluminum—that conjure totems, boulders, edifices and artifacts, while synthesizing Western and Eastern traditions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Inspired by her family’s produce, she cast real corn, strawberries and cherries in plaster, then made a silicone mold to create copies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Or did his men just plaster up some notices containing the decree across the city, roughly as utility workers warn locals about downed power lines?
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026
Vola rummaged under the sink and drew out a sack of plaster.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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
"Teachers have been putting sticking plasters on education for too long," she said.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2025
He plasters them across the city in hopes of bringing ‘little expressions of joy’ to Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
In fleeting clear spells of lucidity, when Amaranta would bring him his meals he would tell her what bothered him most and would accept her sucking glasses and mustard plasters in a docile way.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Busakorn also noted that the stage was decorated using highly flammable materials such as plastic flowers, while the ceiling was plastered with combustible foam.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
They commit full-throatedly to playing out Misraje’s vision of a Hollywood haunted by the dreamers it’s wronged and the secrets it’s plastered over.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
Having withdrawn from an England Under-21s camp, a secret rendezvous to meet US Soccer officials was instead plastered all over social media and he was courted with NBA tickets and trips to Florida.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 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 boys had their hair plastered down wet and slick.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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
Wider projects involving stonemasonry and plastering on historical buildings in and around Eyemouth are planned on the back of the success of restoring Bee.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2025
The crowd constricted around the truck, plastering Fadi and Mariam against the back tire.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
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.
