plastic

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.

   • Reducing plastic waste is a crucial problem for today’s environment, and whether it’s recyclable and biodegradable phone cases or sustainable fashion, there are plenty of eco-friendly products that can help you reduce your footprint.
   • 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. 2

   Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.

   • I knew the war between cash and credit cards was over and plastic had won, hands down, when even Mickey D's started taking credit and debit cards.
   • The surgeon checks your plastic on the phone / a Casio concerto entertains you while you hold
   • 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. 3

   Insincerity

   Insincerity; fakeness; a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population; a narcissistic, affected person.

   • 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.
   • Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic.
4. ›+ 14 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      An instance of plastic surgery.

      • Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it.
   2. 5

      A sculptor, moulder.

   3. 6

      Any solid but malleable substance.

   4. 7

      Synonym of Plastic Paddy.

   5. 8

      Capable of being moulded

      Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

      • 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.
      • [A]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.
      • Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.
   6. 9

      Producing tissue.

   7. 10

      Creative, formative.

      • Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect
      • See plastic Nature working to this end.
   8. 11

      Capable of adapting to varying conditions

      Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.

   9. 12

      Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.

   10. 13

       Made of plastic.

       • 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.
       • 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
   11. 14

       Inferior or not the real thing.

       • The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie
       • 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.
       • Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...
   12. 15

       Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and…

       Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and glossy flawlessness.

       • 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.
       • Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go
       • Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes
   13. 16

       Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.

       • A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]
   14. 17

       Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.

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

The neighborhood