paper

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
paper/ˈpeɪpə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing or printing on or as wrapping material.

  ■ (papers) sheets of paper covered with writing or printing; documents.

  ■ [as modifier] officially documented but having no real existence or use: a paper profit.

• 2 a newspaper.

• 3 a government report or policy document.

• 4 an essay or dissertation read at a seminar or published in a journal.

• 5 Brit. a set of examination questions to be answered at one session.

  ■ the written answers to such questions.

• 6 theatrical slang free passes of admission to a theatre or other entertainment.

▶verb

• 1 cover with wallpaper.

  ■ (paper something over) disguise an awkward problem instead of resolving it.

• 2 theatrical slang fill (a theatre) by giving out free tickets.

– phrases
on paper

• 1 in writing.

• 2 in theory rather than in reality.

– derivatives
paperer noun,
paperless adjective,
papery adjective.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. papir, from L. papyrus (see papyrus).