stucco
Americannoun
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an exterior finish for masonry or frame walls, usually composed of cement, sand, and hydrated lime mixed with water and laid on wet.
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any of various fine plasters for decorative work, moldings, etc.
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any of various finishes made with cement, plaster, or mortar, as albarium.
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a wall, facing, molding, or other work made of such materials.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a weather-resistant mixture of dehydrated lime, powdered marble, and glue, used in decorative mouldings on buildings
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any of various types of cement or plaster used for coating outside walls
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Also called: stuccowork. decorative work moulded in stucco
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stuccosimple
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stuccoessimple
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have stuccoedperfect
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has stuccoedperfect
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am stuccoingprogressive
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are stuccoingprogressive
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is stuccoingprogressive
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have been stuccoingperfect progressive
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has been stuccoingperfect progressive
Past
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stuccoedsimple
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had stuccoedperfect
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was stuccoingprogressive
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were stuccoingprogressive
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had been stuccoingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stucco
1590–1600; < Italian < Langobardic; compare Old High German stucki crust, piece ( German Stück )
Explanation
Stucco is a material that's used to coat ceilings, walls, and the exterior of buildings. If you travel to the southwestern United States, you'll see many homes with stucco exteriors and terra-cotta roof tiles. Stucco is a type of plaster, a substance that goes on as a wet paste and dries hard. In fact, in Italian, stucco means "plaster," from a Germanic source it shares with the Old High German stukki, or "crust." Stucco is mainly decorative, often covering metal or cinderblock, but it's also a weather-resistant coating. While regular plaster is usually smooth and white, stucco is most often textured.
Vocabulary lists containing stucco
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:
Dubbed the French Ivy House thanks to the abundance of ivy covering the stucco walls, the 3,473-square-foot layout of the star’s former dwelling features plenty of space.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
Before long, he was strong enough to break the springs that raised the door and crack the stucco framing it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
At the heart of the compound is the original four-bedroom Spanish Revival mansion, defined by white stucco walls, hand-painted ceilings, and romantic courtyards.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 5, 2026
My family first lived in a gold-colored, stucco ranch house with a black roof in a middle-class section of Woodland Hills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
The outside walls, covered with white stucco, were three feet thick.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Compared with it how our modern towns are dwarfed, and our hasty little palaces, our stuccoes and old iron!
From Egypt (La Mort de Philae) by Baines, William Peter
Barbary gave her odoriferous woods, Egypt her ivory, Syria her stuccoes, Persia her tapestry, Constantinople her elegant mosaics.
From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 3 by Various
Nothing can be more festive than a brilliantly lighted hall, glowing with these woven pictures or arabesques, framed in gilded carvings or stuccoes.
From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess
All along the walls, below the line of the stuccoes, were excavated shelves, on which stood numbers of small cinerary boxes, each bearing a name.
From Renaissance Fancies and Studies Being a Sequel to Euphorion by Lee, Vernon
Its art was largely expressed in the treatment of flat surfaces, using enameled bricks, painted stuccoes, figured bronzes, etc.
From Applied Design for Printers A Handbook of the Principles of Arrangement, with Brief Comment on the Periods of Design Which Have Most Strongly Influenced Printing Typographic Technical Series for Apprentices #43 by Gage, Harry Lawrence
“The richness of the materials used, the marbles, the stuccos decorated with gold leaf ... testifies that we are dealing with works created for the imperial family,” he says.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 9, 2023
By turning a corner, you can get the white columns of the Old South, the brown brick of Oklahoma City, the bright stuccos of Florida.
From Time Magazine Archive
The colors and textures seemed very bland compared to the warm and bright bricks and stuccos of the houses around C Average.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
It is certain that Giulio educated a pupil as his Perino, for his stuccos; and this was, besides Primaticcio, a Gio.
From The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6) from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Lanzi, Luigi Antonio
He utterly destroyed the marvellous statues, paintings, mosaics and stuccos, so that he left Rome not only stripped of every trace of her former majesty, but destitute of shape and life.
From The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 (of 8) by Vasari, Giorgio
Exposure to the southern climate and to its Spanish Colonial Revival legacy of stuccoed buildings with red tile roofs inspired local residents and their architects.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
He won the speaker's office, a splendid 19th century confection of rich stonework, carved plaster and gilt partitions, along a corridor from the main parliament chamber under its stuccoed dome and arcade of horseshoe arches.
From Reuters ● Jul. 15, 2022
But it was flattering, too, in those early days of Londongrad, of Moscow-on-Thames, as the stuccoed houses of the capital’s finest streets were filling with Russian oligarchs, the country’s finest schools thronging with their children.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
The troops billeted there during the war had graffitied her pretty stuccoed walls.
From The Guardian ● May 10, 2017
What remained was the artificial lake and island with its two stone bridges supporting the driveway, and, by the waters edge, a crumbling stuccoed temple.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
It was just so common for me to know these things, like stuccoing the door, the house outside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2022
As we talked, two Latinos were stuccoing a gas station across the highway.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 24, 2016
Phil had been studiously stuccoing her toast with marmalade, and she bit into it before looking at her father.
From Otherwise Phyllis by Gibson, Charles Dana
He was always, brush in hand, perched up on a temporary stage, painting earnestly, fiercely, 'with the inveterate diligence of a little devil stuccoing a mud wall!' cried flaming Mr. Fuseli.
From Art in England Notes and Studies by Cook, Dutton
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.
