Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plaster \Plas"ter\, n. [AS., a plaster (in sense 1), fr. L. emplastrum, Gr. ?, ?, fr. ? to daub on, stuff in; ? in + ? to mold: cf. OF. plastre a plaster (in sense 2), F. pl[^a]tre. Cf. Plastic, Emplaster, Piaster.] [Formerly written also plaister.]
(Med.) An external application of a consistency harder than ointment, prepared for use by spreading it on linen, leather, silk, or other material. It is adhesive at the ordinary temperature of the body, and is used, according to its composition, to produce a medicinal effect, to bind parts together, etc.; as, a porous plaster; sticking 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.
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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. [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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context surgery English) A cast made of a stiff material (often plaster of Paris and gauze) in order to immobilize a broken bone for the period of healing. 2 A copy of a piece of art or other object cast in plaster.
WordNet
n. bandage consisting of a firm covering (often made of plaster of Paris) that immobilizes broken bones while they heal [syn: cast, plaster bandage]
Wikipedia
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology (a track of dinosaur footprints made in this way can be seen outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History).
Sometimes a blank block of plaster itself was carved to produce mock-ups or first drafts of sculptures (usually relief sculptures) that would ultimately be sculpted in stone, by measuring exactly from the cast, for example by using a pointing machine. These are still described as plaster casts. Examples of these by John Flaxman may be found in the central rotunda of the library at University College London, and elsewhere in the University's collections. It may also describe a finished original sculpture made out of plaster, though these are rarer.
Usage examples of "plaster cast".
A model of a cottage, a bas-relief plaster cast, painted and framed, strongly commended itself to Love as a suitable tribute to his young lady, whose “.
Korneff, without a word of comment on the finger, made a plaster cast of it -- without the ring.
From them he learned that he would have to make his clay statue full size and exact, then build over it with plaster, piece by piece, marking on every piece a numerical key for identification, oil the pieces where the edges had to be connected, set the plaster cast aside.
But something about the plaster cast told him she had somehow fit into the Dollmaker's pattern.
The woman's face was stiff as a plaster cast, and under the lacquer job, about the same color.
It looked particularly silly next to the white plaster cast, which had Dee's pink toes sticking out of the end of it.
Heck Bast was able to get his right hand in its plaster cast up in front of his throat.
She sat at his desk and rested her plaster cast on the scratched and dented surface.
But in the bottom drawer of his ancient desk, hidden under a pile of empty bottles, was a plaster cast.