Hypertext Webster Gateway: "plastic"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Plastic \Plas"tic\ (pl[a^]s"t[i^]k), a. [L. plasticus, Gr. ?,
fr. ? to form, mold: cf. F. plastique.]
1. Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of
matter; as, the plastic hand of the Creator. --Prior.
See plastic Nature working to his end. --Pope.
2. Capable of being molded, formed, or modeled, as clay or
plaster; -- used also figuratively; as, the plastic mind
of a child.
3. Pertaining or appropriate to, or characteristic of,
molding or modeling; produced by, or appearing as if
produced by, molding or modeling; -- said of sculpture and
the kindred arts, in distinction from painting and the
graphic arts.
Medallions . . . fraught with the plastic beauty and
grace of the palmy days of Italian art. --J. S.
Harford.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
-plastic \-plas"tic\ (-pl[a^]s"t[i^]k). [Gr. ? fit for molding,
plastic, fr. ? to mold, to form.]
A combining form signifying developing, forming, growing; as,
heteroplastic, monoplastic, polyplastic.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
plastic
adj 1: used of the imagination; "material...transformed by the
plastic power of the imagination" (Coleridge)
2: capable of being molded or modeled (especially of earth or
clay or other soft material); "plastic substances such as
wax or clay" [syn: {fictile}, {moldable}]
3: capable of being influenced or formed; "the plastic minds of
children"; "a pliant nature" [syn: {pliant}]
n : generic name for certain synthetic or semisynthetic
materials that can be molded or extruded into objects or
films or filaments or used for making e.g. coatings and
adhesives
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.