PLASTIC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Plastic

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/plˈæstɪk/ Listen

noun

plastic n. A substance composed predominantly of a synthetic organic high polymer capable of being cast or molded; many varieties of plastic are used to produce articles of commerce (after 1900). (MW10 gives origin of word as 1905)

adjective

Plastic adj.

1.

Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter; as, the plastic hand of the Creator. "See plastic Nature working to his end."

2.

Capable of being molded, formed, or modeled, as clay or plaster; used also figuratively; as, the plastic mind of a child.

3.

Pertaining or appropriate to, or characteristic of, molding or modeling; produced by, or appearing as if produced by, molding or modeling; said of sculpture and the kindred arts, in distinction from painting and the graphic arts. "Medallions... fraught with the plastic beauty and grace of the palmy days of Italian art."

Plastic clay (Geol.), one of the beds of the Eocene period; so called because used in making pottery.

Plastic element (Physiol.), one that bears within the germs of a higher form.

Plastic exudation (Med.), an exudation thrown out upon a wounded surface and constituting the material of repair by which the process of healing is effected.

Plastic foods. (Physiol.) See the second Note under Food.

Plastic force. (Physiol.) See under Force.

Plastic operation, an operation in plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery, that branch of surgery which is concerned with the repair or restoration of lost, injured, or deformed parts of the body.

suffix

-plastic suff. A combining form signifying developing, forming, growing; as, heteroplastic, monoplastic, polyplastic.

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Etymology of 'Plastic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plastic" Quotes from Famous Books

... not at once to dance; instead, she executed a series of postures; almost without apparent transition she melted from one pose to another of plastic grace, her body the mere, boneless, obedient servant of ...

— The Black Pearl • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

... primaeval art was already hoary with the rime of ages. When Memphian artists were busy in the morning twilight of time with the towering coiffure of Ramses or Sesostris, this far more ancient relic of plastic handicraft was lying, already fossil and forgotten, beneath the concreted floor of a cave in the Dordogne. If we were to divide the period for which we possess authentic records of man's abode upon this oblate spheroid into ...

— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products processing; ...

— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... sayings that except an upright life everything is vain in earth and heaven, and nothing more vain than the disputes of so-called sages. These were the true models for Varro, a man full of old Roman indignation at the pitiful times and full of old Roman humour, by no means destitute withal of plastic talent but as to everything which presented the appearance not of palpable fact but of idea or even of system, utterly stupid, and perhaps the most unphilosophical among the unphilosophical Romans.(23) But ...

— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... don't you think the pose strained? It's an example of eighteenth-century work, placid enough, but it lacks that plastic, fluidic serenity, that divine new touch of truth, that is revivifying art since the great Rodin lighted ...

— A Woman Named Smith • Marie Conway Oemler

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