stucco
Americannoun
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stuccoes,
plural
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stuccos
plural
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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)
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stuccoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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stuccoed,
past participle, past
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stuccoing
present participle
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:
The hauntingly lighted displays include the engraved jaw of a sacrifice victim and footprints embedded in stucco, as if the Aztec teens had just run upstairs for a break.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Neighbors and people driving by rushed to the scene to help, and some removed chunks of stucco wall covering the children, bringing them to safety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
I’m a writer who has been sent out on assignment to the stucco estates of suburban Los Angeles to profile a young socialist named Hasan Piker.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
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
That palm tree was as out of place as the stucco.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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 Vernon Lee
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 Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess Alford
Thus some works of an inferior Florentine artist were ornamented with stuccoes, carving, and gilding, by the celebrated Donatello, who, in his youth, practiced this art in connection with sculpture.
From On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature by John Ruskin
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
But the light struck upon the gilt stuccoes opposite me, and on a large expanse of fresco, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, with Agamemnon and Achilles in Roman helmets, lappets, and knee-breeches.
From Hauntings by Vernon Lee
“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 Luigi Antonio Lanzi
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 Giorgio Vasari
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
From the stuccoed mansions of London’s embassy district of Belgravia to the glass penthouses along the River Thames, the British capital’s high-end real estate has long attracted Russian and other wealthy foreign buyers.
From Reuters ● Jan. 31, 2023
Our eyes were immediately drawn across the street to the stuccoed brick Freemason Street Baptist Church, designed by Thomas U. Walter in the Gothic Revival style and built in 1848.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2021
He included sumptuous royal quarters, with grand chimneys, stuccoed ceilings and carved wood paneling, but was never graced with a visit from a king or queen.
From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2019
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 Charles Dana Gibson
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 Dutton Cook
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.
