plastic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈplæstɪk/
ipa: [ˈpʰlastɪk]
ipa: /ˈplæstɪk/
ipa: [ˈpʰlæstɪk]
rhymes: -æstɪk
Forms: form: more plastic
form: most plastic
form: plastick
Etymology: From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”). Doublet of plastique.
Senses: examples: text: the rage […] betook itself at last to certain missile weapons; which, though from their plastic nature they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady.
text: [A]nd it is highly probable that along with more splendid habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction.
ref: 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth:
text: Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.
ref: 1898, Journal of Microscopy, page 256:
text: Man tracks and dog tracks, they left a clear imprint on its plastic surface, and came out on an open beach, stretching a mile away to another headland.
ref: 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 60:
text: While a historical woman obviously dwells at the root of this whole phenomenon, her image has been plastic, allowing the Christian imagination to create widely different Marian symbols and theologies in relation to spiritual and social needs.
ref: 2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America, volume 182, number 21:
text: while the broad pattern of connections between brain regions is similar in every healthy human brain, their details – their number, size and strength – are thought to underpin our individuality, as synapses are ‘plastic’, shaped by experience.
ref: 2012, Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review, number 399:
synonyms: word: malleable
word: flexible
word: pliant
word: ductile
word: fictile
word: formable
word: moldable
word: plastic
word: sequacious
word: shapeable
antonyms: elastic
glosses: Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Producing tissue.
examples: text: Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect
ref: 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
text: See plastic Nature working to this end.
ref: 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Creative, formative.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
glosses: Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
examples: text: A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: A green plastic watering can / For a fake Chinese rubber plant / In a fake plastic earth / That she bought from a rubber man / In a town full of rubber plans / To get rid of itself
ref: 1995, Radiohead, “Fake Plastic Trees”, in The Bends:
glosses: Made of plastic.
examples: text: The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie
ref: 1969, Lowell D. Streiker, The gospel of irreligious religion, page 83:
text: People always try to say that we're garage rock, but that scene is so plastic. Some dude in a band has tight jeans, dyed black hair, and a starving girlfriend with bangs, and people call it indie rock. It's so gross.
ref: 2007, Daniel Sinker, We owe you nothing: Punk Planet: the collected interviews, page 238:
text: Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...
ref: 2008, Matt James Mason, The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism:
synonyms: ersatz
glosses: Inferior or not the real thing.
examples: text: He kissed the white woman once, and it was so artificial, so plastic (that's the word, plastic) that one wondered why did they bother at all.
ref: 1966, Calvin C. Hernton, White papers for white Americans, page 67:
text: Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go
ref: 1967, “Plastic People”, in Frank Zappa (music), Absolutely Free, performed by The Mothers of Invention:
text: Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes
ref: 1971, Gil Scott-Heron, “Lady Day and John Coltrane”, in Pieces of a Man:
text: In fact it seems as though there are two kinds of people in the world: real people and plastic people, as the Flower Children used to say.
ref: 1973, Eric Berne, What do you say after you say hello?, page 120:
text: But I don't think she would be happy in Los Angeles — it's so plastic and cheap and they expect the women to be whores to get anywhere.
ref: 2006, Catherine Coulter, Born to Be Wild, page 71:
text: We're plastic but we'll still have fun!
ref: 2009, Lady Gaga, Paparazzi:
text: And further, I don't see anything in American life – for myself – to aspire to. Nothing at all. It's all so very false. So shallow, so plastic, so morally and ethically corrupt.
ref: 2014, James Baldwin, James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations, →ISBN:
text: The Clash tour was pretty tough. Their fans mostly hated Suicide. A lot of them were plastic punks who just thought punk rock was guitars, safety pins and bin bags.
ref: 2017 July 18, Daniel Dylan Wray, quoting Martin Rev, “‘It was like going into the trenches’: how Suicide rioted against plastic punk”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: fake
insincere
antonyms: genuine
sincere
glosses: Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and glossy flawlessness.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]
ref: 2024 January 14, Ian Reid, “South Aussie birding on the other side of the world”, in The Feathered Variety (blog), archived from the original on 14 Jan 2024:
topics: biology
birdwatching
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.
raw_tags: of an individual bird
examples: text: I was checking into my motel while a Red-whiskered Bulbul called outside – a Queensland plastic rarity which was somewhat amusing.
ref: 2018 August 12, Corwin Caelin, “The bucket list – a Wallaby and a Wombat – part 1”, in Go Birding (blog), archived from the original on 23 Aug 2018:
topics: biology
birdwatching
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.
raw_tags: of a species or individual bird
Derived terms: aminoplastic
amyloplastic
antiplastic
apicoplastic
autoplastic
basiplastic
Bingham plastic
cacoplastic
ceroplastic
conplastic
cranioplastic
ecoplastic
electroplastic
embryoplastic
euplastic
euryplastic
fibre-reinforced plastic
fluoroplastic
haematoplastic
heteroplastic
homeoplastic
hydroplastic
ideoplastic
macroplastic
megaplastic
mesoplastic
metalloplastic
neoplastic
neuroplastic
nonplastic
normoplastic
oculoplastic
oligoplastic
oncoplastic
organoplastic
plamodel
plasteel
plastically
plastic art
plasticate
plasticator
plastic bag
plastic baton round
plastic beauty
plastic bullet
plastic cheese
plastic crack
plastic cup
plastic deformation
plastic explosive
plastic fantastic
plastic flow
plastic footprint
plastician
Plasticine
plasticine
plasticise
plasticism
plasticity
plasticization
plasticize
plasticizer
plasticky
plasticless
plastic money
plasticness
plasticosis
plastic Paddy
plastic panties
plastic pants
plastic patriotism
plastic pig
plastic plod
plastic ratio
plasticrete
plastic rush
plastic shaman
plastic surgeon
plastic surgery
plasticuffs
plasticulture
plasticware
plastic wood
plastify
plastiglass
plastiglomerate
plastiskin
plastisol
plastisphere
plastivore
plastivorous
plastizyme
plastoid
plazzy
pleather
polyplastic
pseudoplastic
semiplastic
Silastic
sticky-backed plastic
sticky-back plastic
subplastic
superplastic
synaptoplastic
thermoplastic
thromboplastic
unplastic
viscoplastic
xyloplastic
zymoplastic