plastic

• plastick (archaic)

From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”). Doublet of plastique.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplæstɪk/,
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplæstɪk/,

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstɪk
• Hyphenation: plas‧tic

plastic (countable and uncountable, plural plastics)

1. A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.
   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too.

   • 2021 February 20, Nicholas Kristof, “What Are Sperm Telling Us?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     These endocrine disruptors are everywhere: plastics, shampoos, cosmetics, cushions, pesticides, canned foods and A.T.M. receipts. They often aren’t on labels and can be difficult to avoid.

2. (colloquial, metonymically) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
   • 2008, Lily Allen, The Fear:

     It's all about fast cars and cussing each other / but it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic / and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic.

3. (figurative, slang) insincerity; fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.
   • 2004, Rosalind Wiseman, Tina Fey, Mean Girls:

     Cady: You know I couldn't invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic.
     Janis: Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore. You're plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic.

   • 2011, Emily Kapnek, Suburgatory:

     Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic.

4. (slang, countable) An instance of plastic surgery.
   • 1951, Arnold Hano, The Big Out, page 146:

     Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it.

5. (obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.
6. (archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.

• → Japanese: プラスチック (purasuchikku)
• → Korean: 플라스틱 (peullaseutik)
• → Swahili: plastiki

plastic (comparative more plastic, superlative most plastic)

1. Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

   Synonyms: malleable, flexible, pliant; see also Thesaurus:moldable

   Antonym: elastic

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:
     , Folio Society 1973, page 103:

     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.

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth:

     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.

   • 1898, Journal of Microscopy, page 256:

     Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 60:

     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.

   • 2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America‎, volume 182, number 21:

     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.

   • 2012, Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review, number 399:

     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.

2. (medicine, now rare) Producing tissue.
3. (dated) Creative, formative.
   • 1718, Mat 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):

     Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. , (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J Wilford, , →OCLC:

     See plastic Nature working to this end.

4. (biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
5. Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
6. Made of plastic.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1995, Radiohead (lyrics and music), “Fake Plastic Trees”, in The Bends:

     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

7. (figurative, derogatory) Inferior or not the real thing.

   Synonym: ersatz

   • 1969, Lowell D. Streiker, The gospel of irreligious religion, page 83:

     The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie

   • 2007, Daniel Sinker, We owe you nothing: Punk Planet: the collected interviews, page 238:

     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.

   • 2008, Matt James Mason, The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism:

     Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...

8. (figurative, informal, of a person) Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and glossy flawlessness.

   Synonyms: fake, insincere

   Antonyms: genuine, sincere

   • 1966, Calvin C. Hernton, White papers for white Americans, page 67:

     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.

   • 1967, “Plastic People”, in Frank Zappa (music), Absolutely Free, performed by The Mothers of Invention:

     Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go

   • 1971, Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics and music), “Lady Day and John Coltrane”, in Pieces of a Man:

     Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes

   • 1973, Eric Berne, What do you say after you say hello?, page 120:

     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.

   • 2006, Catherine Coulter, Born to Be Wild, page 71:

     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.

   • 2009, Lady Gaga, Paparazzi:

     We're plastic but we'll still have fun!

   • 2014, James Baldwin, James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

9. (informal, birdwatching, of an individual bird) Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.
   • 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 January 2024:

     A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]

10. (informal, birdwatching, of a species or individual bird) Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.
    • 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 August 2018:

      I was checking into my motel while a Red-whiskered Bulbul called outside – a Queensland plastic rarity which was somewhat amusing.

• placits

Borrowed from English plastic.

plastic

1. (sometimes proscribed) plastic

Discouraged in engineering circles in favour of plast.

Borrowed from English plastic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛs.tɪk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plas‧tic

plastic n (uncountable)

1. (Netherlands, uncountable) plastic (synthetic polymer substance)

   Synonym: plastiek

• → Caribbean Javanese: plastig, plèstig

plastic m (plural plastics)

1. (Netherlands, countable, chemistry) plastic (specific type of synthetic polymer)

   Synonym: plastiek

plastic (not comparable)

1. (Netherlands) plastic

   Synonym: plastieken

Borrowed from English plastic. Doublet of plastique.

• IPA^(key): /plas.tik/

• Audio:

  (file)

plastic m (plural plastics)

1. plastic explosive

• plasticage
• plastiquer

• “plastic”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Borrowed from French plastique.

plastic m or n (feminine singular plastică, masculine plural plastici, feminine and neuter plural plastice)

1. plastic

• plasticitate