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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-15c.; originally it was made from the extensive gypsum deposits of Montmartre in Paris.
Wiktionary
n. A hemihydrate of calcium sulfate, made by calcine gypsum, that hardens when moistened and allowed to dry; used to make casts, molds or sculpture
WordNet
n. any of several gypsum cements; a white powder (a form of calcium sulphate) that forms a paste when mixed with water and hardens into a solid; used in making molds and sculptures and casts for broken limbs [syn: plaster]
Usage examples of "plaster of paris".
Sister Bernadette was already mixing the plaster of Paris, and he crossed to the operating table and looked down at Kelso who was still unconscious.
He left his three main pieces of luggage in an automatic locker in the main terminal building and took with him into town only the hand-grip containing his personal effects, the plaster of Paris, pads of cotton wool and bandages.
It even looked like a totem pole, its exterior decorated by a big spiral serpent of papier mache and plaster of paris.
Its telescoped eye at the muzzle of the 20mm cannon stared right and left, looking over the heads and among the white spectators, over the living white policemen hopping about the dead, up and down the rich main street with its impressive stores, and in its frustration at not seeing a black face to shoot at it rained explosive 20 mm shells on the black plaster of Paris mannequins displaying a line of beachware in a department store window.
After one hour's exposure to Titan's light and air, the peat has the strength and hardness of plaster of Paris.
The cast was taken in two moulds from each side of the face, and then these two profiles of plaster of Paris were joined together to make the complete bust.
Here is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses.
He checked over the contents: three operating tables, ether, oxygen cylinders, instruments, the medical cabinets, rows of cots, tubs of plaster of Paris and bandaging for splints.
They are decidedly low-tech: brushes of various sizes and stiffness, hammers, chisels, awls, shovels, rope, picks (from as big as pickaxes to as small as dental picks), buckets, water jugs, burlap, and bags of plaster of paris.