PLASTIC • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... that are known to human history, the love story of Antony and Cleopatra has been for nineteen centuries the most remarkable. It has tasked the resources of the plastic and the graphic arts. It has been made the theme of poets and of prose narrators. It has appeared and reappeared in a thousand forms, and it appeals as much to the imagination to-day as it did when Antony deserted his almost victorious troops and hastened ...

— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr

... last mark of truth upon a story and fill up, at one blow, our capacity for sympathetic pleasure, we so adopt into the very bosom of our mind that neither time nor tide can efface or weaken the impression. This, then, is the plastic part of literature: to embody character, thought, or emotion in some act or attitude that shall be remarkably striking to the mind's eye. This is the highest and hardest thing to do in words; the thing which, once ...

— Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... . Or was there ever a time when these immense masses of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation by some adventitious moisture: were raised and leavened into such shapes by some plastic power: and so made to swell and heave their broad backs into the sky so much above the less animated ...

— The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 • Gilbert White

... have convictions; but what are they? Has he merely a brilliant gift for description, helped out and sophisticated by a subtle taste? Or has he a queer entangled sense of the significance of form. Is he a plastic artist or an extraordinarily gifted statuary? Even if this work be an imitation, how admirable a one is it! That Mr. Epstein should combine with the taste and intelligence to perceive the beauty of Mexican sculpture the skill and science to ...

— Pot-Boilers • Clive Bell

... than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, 'I won't ...

— How to Use Your Mind • Harry D. Kitson

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