plaster

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
plaster/ˈplɑːstə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 a soft mixture of lime with sand or cement and water for spreading on walls and ceilings to form a smooth hard surface when dried.

• 2 (also plaster of Paris) a hard white substance made by the addition of water to powdered gypsum, used for holding broken bones in place and making sculptures and casts.

• 3 (also sticking plaster) Brit. an adhesive strip of material for covering cuts and wounds.

  ■ dated a bandage on which a poultice is spread for application.

▶verb

• 1 cover with plaster; apply plaster to.

• 2 coat or cover all over with something, especially to an excessive extent: a face plastered in heavy make-up.

  ■ display widely and conspicuously: her story was plastered all over the papers.

• 3 apply a plaster cast to.

• 4 informal, dated bomb or shell (a target) heavily.

– derivatives
plasterer noun,
plastery adjective.

– origin OE, denoting a bandage spread with a curative substance, from med. L. plastrum, from Gk emplastron ‘daub, salve’.