plaster
- 01 B1 Intermediate
n.a soft mixture of sand, water, and lime that gets hard when it dries, used to make walls and ceilings smooth.
n.a composition of lime or gypsum, sand, and water that hardens upon drying, used for coating internal walls and ceilings.
Simple“The old plaster on the bedroom ceiling was starting to crack and fall off.”
In context“The restoration team had to strip away layers of wallpaper to reach the original lime plaster, which required delicate repair work to preserve the ornate cornicing.”
- 02 B1 Intermediate
n.a small piece of sticky material used to cover a minor cut on your skin.
n.a small, flexible adhesive strip used to protect minor wounds from infection and debris.
Simple“I cut my finger while chopping onions, so I need to put a plaster on it.”
In context“The school nurse applied a waterproof plaster to the child's scraped knee before sending him back out to the playground.”
Teacher's tipIn American English, this is almost exclusively called a 'Band-Aid' or a 'bandage'.
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a hard white cover put around a broken bone to keep it still while it heals.
n.a rigid dressing, typically made of plaster of Paris or fibreglass, used to immobilise a fractured limb.
Simple“He had to wear a plaster on his leg for six weeks after the skiing accident.”
In context“Once the swelling had subsided, the doctor replaced the temporary splint with a heavy plaster to ensure the bone remained perfectly aligned during the healing process.”
Synonyms - 04 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to cover a surface with a thick layer of something, like posters or mud.
v.to cover a surface extensively or to coat something with a thick, often viscous, layer of a substance.
Simple“The teenagers plastered their bedroom walls with posters of their favourite bands.”
In context“By the end of the election cycle, every available inch of the city's hoardings had been plastered with competing political advertisements.”
From Middle English plaster, plastre, from Old English plaster, from late Latin plastrum, shortened from Classical Latin emplastrum (“a plaster, bandage”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman plastre. The verb is from Middle English plastren, from the noun.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.