Word Direct Answers

What does "plaster" mean?

Plaster: A composition of lime, water, and sand, with or without hair as a bond, for coating walls, ceilings, and partitions of houses. See Mortar.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Calcined gypsum, or plaster of Paris, especially when ground, as used for making ornaments, figures, moldings, etc.; or calcined gypsum used as a fertilizer. Plaster cast, a copy of an object obtained by pouring plaster of Paris mixed with water into a mold. -- Plaster of Paris. Etym: [So called because originally brought from a suburb of Paris.] (Chem.) Anhydrous calcium sulphate, or calcined gypsum, which forms with water a paste which soon sets or hardens, and is used for casts, moldings, etc. The term is loosely applied to any plaster stone or species of gypsum. -- Plaster of Paris bandage (Surg.), a bandage saturated with a paste of plaster of Paris, which on drying forms a perfectly fitting splint. -- Plaster stone, any species of gypsum. See Gypsum.
  2. 3.To cover with a plaster, as a wound or sore.
  3. 4.To overlay or cover with plaster, as the ceilings and walls of a house.
  4. 5.Fig.: To smooth over; to cover or conceal the defects of; to hide, as with a covering of plaster. Bale.

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