| 释义 |
▪ I. plastic, a. and n.3|ˈplæstɪk, ˈplɑːstik|
Also 7–8 -tick, -tique, (8 plaistic).
[ad. L. plastic-us (Vitr.), a. Gr. πλαστικός that may be moulded, belonging to moulding or modelling, plastic, f. πλαστ-ός formed, moulded, f. πλάσσειν to mould, form. So F. plastique (1556 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
I. In active sense.
1. a. Characterized by moulding, shaping, modelling, fashioning, or giving form to a yielding material, as clay or wax; capable of shaping or moulding formless matter.
plastic art († art plastic), the art of shaping or modelling; any art in which this is done, as sculpture or ceramics.
1632B. Jonson Magn. Lady iv. iii, Not..as we were to mould every scene anew; that were a mere plastic or potter's ambition. a1637― Discov., De Progress. Picturæ, The art plastic was moulding in clay, or potters earth anciently. 1677Plot Oxfordsh. 251 He [John Dwight] has so far advanced the Art Plastick, that 'tis dubious whether any man since Prometheus have excelled him. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 101 So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care, Each growing lump, and brings it to a bear. 1741Warburton Div. Legat. II. 554 God, the great plastic Artist. 1745J. G. Cooper Power of Harmony i. 21 As o'er the rock the plastic chissel moves. 1852tr. Müller's Archæol. Art 65 The plastic talent which creates material forms cannot certainly fail to be recognized even as early as Homer.
b. In surgery: Concerned with remedying a deficiency of structure; reparative of tissue; as plastic surgery, a plastic operation. So plastic surgeon, one skilled in plastic surgery.
1839Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. VII. 388 We are, therefore, willing to confine ourselves, with our German author [sc. Zeis], to the use of the simple expression ‘Plastic surgery’, which is sufficient to imply generically all we mean. Ibid. 393 Syphilis, lupus, scrofula, &c. have made cases whereon to exercise the ingenuity of the plastic operator. 1853J. Erichsen Sci. & Art of Surg. xlviii. 665 By plastic or reparative surgery is meant those processes by which mutilations are repaired, and loss of structure replaced. 1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 379 There were 2 plastic operations. 1883Holmes & Hulke Syst. Surg. (ed. 3) III. 681 Plastic Operations on the Cheek (Meloplasty). 1897W. Anderson Lupus 14 The raw surface may be covered in partially or completely by gliding portions of detached integument from an adjacent part, or other resources of plastic surgery may be employed. 1911F. S. Kolle Plastic & Cosmetic Surg. i. 8 The successful plastic surgeon has become an imitator of nature's beauty to-day. 1935W. de la Mare Early One Morning 271 Even if he could delete the scar of a wound of this kind which time has healed, how many of us would hasten to consult the plastic surgeon? 1941Ann. Surg. CXIII. 642 The title of Eduard Zeis' (1807–1868) book, published in 1838, was Handbuch der Plastischen Chirurgie, and he says: ‘As far as I know I was the first to use the words ‘plastic surgery’.’ 1972Daily Tel. 18 July 3/3 After the accident she had plastic surgery, but found fashion jobs hard to get because of her scars. 1974J. Grady Six Days of Condor 83 The plastic surgeons had done a marvelous job on his ear.
2. Causing the growth or production of natural forms, esp. of living organisms; formerly, in a quasi-philosophical sense, as an attribute of an alleged principle, virtue, or force in nature; formative, procreative; creative.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 117 The plastick or formative faculty, from matter appearing homogeneous and of a similary substance erecteth bones, membranes, veynes and arteries. 1658― Gard. Cyrus iii, In what diminutives the plastick principle lodgeth is exemplified in seeds. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. 192 Those that think that these Conchæ or Petrified Shells were no other than the Lusus naturæ, the Effects of the Plastick power of the Earth. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. iii. §14 He is positive as to the being of God; and that not merely as a plastic nature, or soul of the world. 1794Coleridge Sonn. to Bowles, Like that great Spirit, who with plastic sweep Moved on the darkness of the formless deep. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 23 The absurdity of having recourse to a certain ‘plastic force’, which it was said had power to fashion stones into organic forms. 1875E. White Life in Christ i iv. (1878) 30 The creation of groups by successive acts of divine power, or..by successive acts of the plastic force of nature.
3. fig. in reference to immaterial things, conditions, or forms, æsthetic or intellectual conceptions, literary productions, etc.
1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §4 The great enquiry then is, how far this Plastick Power of the understanding, may extend its self in its forming an Idea of God. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope (ed. 4) I. iii. 113 The genuine poet, of a lively plastic imagination. 1783Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies VI. 29 He considered the sign of wealth, as the plastic and preserving principle of political strength. 1837Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xlv. (1870) II. 500 Imagination creates nothing..it only builds up old materials into new forms; and..ought, therefore, to be called, not the productive or creative, but the plastic. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. I. 133 There is a formative plastic power that is ever urging us towards our truest life. 1877Dowden Shaks. Prim. v. 59 The compression of the large and rough matter of history into dramatic form demanded vigorous exercise of the plastic energy of the imagination.
II. In neuter and passive sense.
4. a. Pertaining, to, connected with, or characteristic of moulding or modelling; produced by moulding, modelling, or sculpture, as distinguished from that which is drawn on a surface. plastic merit, merit as a piece of moulding or sculpture.
1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 32/2 This sort of Works, which are call'd Plastic [che si chiamano lavori di Terra]. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 217 Four Bronze Horses..more noted for their adventures and undoubted antiquity than for their plastic merit. 1863M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece I. vii. 238 The Greeks have an abhorrence of any plastic images of the saints.
b. Pertaining to, characterized by, or utilizing an ability to be permanently changed in shape, without fracture or rupture, by temporary pressure or tension; esp. in plastic deformation or plastic flow.
1877Jrnl. Franklin Inst. CIV. 228 (heading) Plastic flow. 1879Encycl. Brit. IX. 240/2 More shapely bricks are thus produced than by plastic moulding. 1888W. C. Unwin Testing of Materials of Construction i. 18 When a body is subjected to the action of external forces, it undergoes a deformation which is either a deformation which disappears if the load is removed (elastic deformation), or a deformation which remains after the load is removed (plastic deformation). 1923Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics V. 395/1 Associated with plastic strain in many metals is the occurrence or formation of ‘twinned’ crystals. Ibid. 400/1 A viscous, under-cooled liquid, may..undergo deformation of a ‘plastic’ (i.e. non-elastic) nature. 1925Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXII. 451 A consideration of the laws of plastic deformation of hot material during rolling and working. 1940New Statesman 16 Mar. 360/1 In its simplest form we see plastic extrusion as combs or as cosmetic boxes, where the resin has been forced into a mould, with instantaneous cooling. 1951Gloss. Terms Plastics Industry (B.S.I.) 24 Plastic yield, non-elastic deformation. 1963E. S. Hills Elements Structural Geol. xii. 355 Plastic deformation of wall-rocks is exhibited around the Bald Rock batholith, California. 1967M. Chandler Ceramics in Mod. World ii. 63 Shaping methods..include..plastic pressing, and extrusion. 1968A. H. Cottrell Introd. Metallurgy xxi. 387 This leads to a plastic instability in which all subsequent deformation becomes concentrated in one short section..which stretches excessively and forms a narrow neck. 1968R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 1191/2 Plastic flow will occur when an ice body attains a thickness of 100–150 feet. 1976Physics Bull. Oct. 459/1 Most of part one is concerned with the elastic, plastic and fracture behaviour of minerals and rocks.
5. a. Susceptible of being moulded or shaped; capable of taking a new form when subjected to pressure (as clay); readily assuming a new shape.
plastic crystal, a variety of Portland cement of remarkable plasticity (see also sense 5 g). plastic sulphur, an allotropic form of sulphur: see quot. 1868.
1791E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. 85 Etruria! next beneath thy magic hands Glides the quick wheel, the plastic clay expands. 1797Godwin Enquirer i. iii. 12 How unformed and plastic is his body! 1811A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) p. cxiii, Kneading the coating material, so as to render it very plastic. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxii. 349 The ice..was plastic to pressure but not to tension. 1868Watts Dict. Chem. V. 531 Plastic sulphur..is obtained by heating melted sulphur to the temperature 260–300°, and then cooling it suddenly by pouring it in a very thin stream into cold water. It is thus obtained as a soft, yellowish-brown, semitransparent mass, capable of being drawn out into fine elastic threads possessed of considerable tenacity. 1881Engineering 20 May 513/3 (heading) Richards' plastic metal. Ibid., ‘J. Richards' Plastic Metal’ is being made by the J. Richards' Plastic Metal Company, of Charlotte-street, Birmingham. In general outward appearances it resembles..other varieties of white metal so largely used for lining bearings... Its special feature..is its great affinity for other metals..enabling it to be readily ‘pasted on’. 1907Chem. Abstr. I. 1077 Process of manufacturing a plastic material suitable for the production of fibers, pellicles, blocks, or plates, consisting in mixing together phenol, 17, casein, 40, pressing, heating..and pressing again, then adding glycerol to give plasticity. 1908L. Desvaux Brit. Pat. 9313 A plastic product for the manufacture of combs, molded objects of any kind and similar applications, composed of a mixture in variable proportions of nitrocellulose and camphor,..and of the food product extracted from maize by treating this substance with higher alcohols. 1921Chem. Abstr. XV. 1770 A description of the classes of com. materials falling under the category of plastic masses. B. divides the important and most useful products into 6 classes, (1) glues, (2) papier maché, (3) wood products, (4) cellulose products, (5) egg white and casein, and (6) resins. The criterion for plastics is the condition of the raw material or of the final product... B. takes exception to the older classification of plastics based on some temporary condition during manuf.
b. plastic clay (Geol.), a name given (after the F. argile plastique of Cuvier and Brongniart) to the middle group of the Eocene beds, immediately underlying the London clay, now called the Woolwich and Reading series. [tr. F. argile plastique (Cuvier & Brongniart 1808, in Jrnl. des Mines XXIII. 432).]
1812T. Webster Let. 2 Aug. in H. C. Englefield Description Isle of Wight (1816) 210 The clay connected with this sand is frequently fit for the potter, and hence has been called the plastic clay. 1813R. Jameson in R. Kerr tr. Cuvier's Essay on Theory of Earth 227 The fundamental rock or basis of the [Paris] district is chalk. This chalk is covered with plastic clay, and what is termed coarse marine limestone. 1832H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 229 Above these beds, to which, strictly speaking, the term ‘plastic clay’ is alone applicable, there is often another clay, separated from the former by a bed of sand. 1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 244 Plastic clay and sand. 1885Lyell's Elem. Geol. 229 Woolwich and Reading series.—..formerly called the Plastic clay, as it agrees with a similar clay used in pottery, which occupies the same position in the French series. 1929P. G. H. Boswell in Evans & Stubblefield Hand-bk. Geol. Gt. Brit. 417 The lowest Eocene deposits are therefore the Reading Beds..which..consist of mottled clays (‘Plastic Clay’) and sands with a glauconitic bed at the base. 1955G. G. Woodford tr. M. Gignoux's Stratigr. Geol. ix. 477 Mammalian remains are present..at the base of the plastic clay. 1961B. Kummel Hist. Earth 8/2 Of the strata above the Purbeck beds and below the Plastic clay, the most conspicuous unit is the Chalk.
c. plastic explosive, an explosive of putty-like consistency that can be shaped by hand and so placed in intimate contact with its target; so plastic bomb, one containing plastic explosive; plastic-bomb vb. trans., plastic-bombing vbl. n.
1906C. E. Bichel Brit. Pat. 16,882 Add to the trinitrotoluol liquid resins..in such wise that..the crystalline trinitrotoluol with or without warming is worked in suitable mixing machines into a plastic explosive that detonates well. 1946T. C. Ohart Elements of Ammunition ii. 37 A plastic explosive known as RDX-composition C is formed by mixing about 88% cyclonite with 12% plasticizer. 1955G. Greene Quiet American iii. i. 185 That day all over Saigon innocent bicycle-pumps had proved to be plastic bombs and gone off at the stroke of eleven. 1961Times 12 July 10/3 Bombs made with plastic explosive were discovered not far from the entrance to the Simplon. 1961Economist 25 Nov. 777/1 One farmer has threatened to plastic-bomb the line. 1962Spectator 23 Feb. 229/1 The imported disease of plastic-bombing the home of your adversary at the risk of maiming or killing his wife and children. 1962Daily Tel. 14 June 14 Casual and indiscriminate plastic-bombing, in Paris as well as in Algeria, has been followed by attacks on a hospital..and on an oil-well. 1963Ann. Reg. 1962 236 In France there were plastic bomb attacks, directed mainly against liberal politicians and journalists. 1976N. Freeling Lake Isle xv. 113 A couple of cops stayed for a search. They got back..with an old army revolver, two-thirds of a kilo of plastic explosive, and a lot of gold coins.
d. plastic bronze, bronze containing a high proportion of lead, which is used for bearings on account of its softness.
1907G. H. Clamer in Chem. Engineer Aug. 93 This alloy is largely sold under the name of ‘plastic bronze’. 1939[see leaded ppl. a. e]. 1954Kempe's Engineer's Yearbk. I. 633 ‘Plastic’ bronze Cu 73 Sn 7 Pb 20.
e. plastic wood, a mouldable material that hardens to resemble wood and is used for filling knot holes, crevices, and the like.
1921Engineering 9 Dec. 785 This material..is named by the firm ‘Plastic Wood’. It is a collodion preparation made with very fine wood meal, and as supplied ready for use is of the consistency of soft putty. 1938A. Durst Wood Carving 16 Knot-holes and blemishes of a like nature can be filled with plastic wood. This is a quickly-drying preparation of cellulose and wood pulp. 1974J. Melville Nun's Castle ix. 205 The old wooden door frame had shrunk... The door around the lock had been built up with..plastic wood.
f. plastic paint, paint which is sufficiently thick and coarse when applied for it to retain a texture given to it with the aid of a brush, spatula, or the like.
1925Amer. Paint Trade Buyer's Guide 208/2 Plastic Paint—see Plastic Relief Compositions. 1955Mod. Building Encycl. 492/2 In addition to the excellent proprietary materials available, plastic paints may be prepared from equal parts of distemper and plaster-of-paris. 1974E. McGirr Murderous Journey 28 A room painted with a dark shade of plastic paint.
g. plastic crystal, a soft substance in which the molecules occupy the points of a regular crystal lattice but have freedom of rotation about those points. (See also sense 5 a.)
1961Physics & Chem. of Solids XVIII. 8/2 In liquid crystals, by heating, the fluidity comes first, but in plastic crystals, the isotropy comes first. 1968A. Bondi Physical Properties of Molecular Crystals vi. 140 The very small expansions of plastic crystals at their melting point generally result from the fact that a much larger expansion took place at a first-order transition of the crystal at some lower temperature. 1974P. A. Winsor in Gray & Winsor Liquid Crystals & Plastic Crystals I. ii. 48 Plastic crystals separate in the crystal forms of the cubic system (rarely hexagonal) and to this extent resemble ordinary solid crystals. However, they show unusually low yield points. The most plastic..will flow under their own weight and although the majority are less soft, they may readily be cut with a knife or extruded through a small hole.
6. a. Of immaterial things and conditions: Capable of being moulded, fashioned, modified, or impressed; impressionable, pliable; susceptible to influence; pliant, supple, flexible.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. iv. iii. 146 Such is Poetical, and such (if I may so call it) Geographical or Plastick Truth. 1816Bentham Chrestom. 133 Of all known languages, the Greek is assuredly in its structure the most plastic and most manageable. 1842Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Babes in Wood, While his mind's ductile and plastic, I'll place him at Dotheboys Hall. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 67 Plato..fancies that the life of the state is as plastic..as that of the individual.
b. Biol. Pertaining to or (of an organism) exhibiting an adaptability to environmental changes.
1905F. E. Clements Research Methods in Ecol. iii. 103 The amount of response to a stimulus is proportional to the intensity of the factor concerned. This does not mean that the same stimulus produces the same response in two distinct species, or..in two plants of one species. In these cases the rule holds only when the plants or species are equally plastic. Ibid. 146 Stable plants are less susceptible of evolution than plastic ones. 1930Jrnl. Ecol. XVIII. 376 The broad-leaved plantain has proved, even within five months, exceedingly plastic. 1965Adv. Genetics XIII. 133 The species that are plastic for leaf shape, that are able to produce both sorts of leaf, are all typically species of shallow water. Ibid. 137 Plastic response is able to provide adaptation to directional selection in some populations which in others is provided by genetic change.
7. Biol. and Path. Capable of forming, or being organized into, living tissue, as plastic lymph, a plastic exudation; pertaining to or accompanied by such a process, as plastic bronchitis.
1834J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest i. (ed. 4) 61 The inflammatory affections of the mucous membrane of the bronchi, may be divided into the catarrhal, the plastic or crusty, and the ulcerous. 1851Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 375 It gives origin to similar changes in the effused fibrine, which it converts from a plastic or organizable deposit, into an aplastic or unorganizable one, namely, pus. 1877Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 376 Plastic or Croupous Bronchitis is almost always chronic. 1886Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. (ed. 2) I. 66 In speaking of ‘plastic lymph’ as undergoing development into connective tissue and vessels, one means not the fibrin itself but the cells that are included in it.
III. 8. absol. the plastic: †a. The plastic principle or virtue (obs.); b. plastic art, plastic beauty.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 214 To the knowledge of the poorest simple, we must first know its efficient, the manner, and method of its efformation, and the nature of the Plastick. 1682H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 238 All Souls are indued with the Plastick whether of Brutes or Men. 1881H. James Portr. Lady xxxvi, His appreciation..was based partly on his fine sense of the plastic.
IV. [Partly deriving from the n. used attrib.]
9. a. Made of plastic; of the nature of a plastic, or containing plastic as an essential ingredient.
1909Chem. Abstr. III. 724 Artificial plastic materials industry... An interesting account..giving descriptions of the process for artificial rubber, leather, and substitutes; celluloid, viscoid, etc.; plastics obtained from cellulose and its compounds; and plastics from casein, maisin, albuminoids, and gelatins. 1911E. C. Worden Nitrocellulose Industry II. xiv. 630 Formation of plastic rods and tubes was first successfully made by the patented process of I. and J. Hyatt. Ibid. 708 The manufacture of plastic cuffs and shirt bosoms. 1912Sci. Amer. Suppl. 20 Apr. 246/1 The term ‘plastic materials’ is here employed in a restricted sense, including only such materials as celluloid and its numerous substitutes, which can easily be shaped by cutting and grinding, as well as by molding, and excluding artificial textile fibers and India rubber and its imitations. 1931Brit. Plastics Year Bk. 17 We have pleasure in presenting to the Plastics Industry the first Year Book..dealing exclusively with Plastic Materials. 1940Economist 29 June 1108/2 Plastic structural material has been introduced into the aircraft industry. 1943Times Weekly Ed. 10 Feb. 17/1 Plastic bearings were going into the heaviest engineering applications. 1949E. Coxhead Wind in West ii. 36 His wife, in a thin..plastic raincoat, looked perished with cold. Ibid. 41 Little Mrs. Turner, who had gone nearly as blue as her plastic mackintosh. 1951A. Baron Rosie Hogarth 60 She..hung plastic curtains in his bedroom. 1957Daily Mail 5 Sept. 11/5 Pre-cooked hamburgers..in their little frozen transparent plastic bags. 1958Engineering 14 Mar. 349/1 Acid wastes are disposed of through plastic pipes. 1958Observer 6 July 9/4 The light plastic mac, easily stuffed into pocket or bag, comes into its own during the British summer. 1961Ann. Reg. 1960 510 Growers of flowers complained that imports of plastic flowers, mainly from Hong Kong, were having an adverse effect. 1966‘G. Black’ You want to die, Johnny? x. 193 There were..plastic tiles on the floor. 1969W. R. R. Park Plastics Film Technol. vi. 147 With the current proliferation of..plastics films, the growing interest in and use of plastic laminates may seem somewhat surprising. 1972Guardian 16 Oct. 9/4 Furtive gestures by elderly men in plastic macs. 1975New Yorker 29 Sept. 43/1 The couch and the armchairs are protected by plastic covers. 1977B. Pym Quartet in Autumn xiii. 109 A plastic bag lying on the kitchen table.
b. fig. Artificial; superficial, insincere.
1963Daily Tel. 22 May 16 The plan's promoters must not take it amiss if, winking an eye, some of our elder oysters inquire whether plastic houses might not connote plastic people. 1967Harper's Aug. 19 Now that so many of the young seem to wear their hearts on their sleeves, it is hard to tell which ones are real and which ones are plastic. 1970Observer (Colour Suppl.) 15 Feb. 24/1 Sinister influences are at work to turn Fiji into another Hawaii, that plastic paradise further along the route. 1974Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Mar. 219/5 The characters are by no means badly drawn and the girl in particular is notably less plastic than usual. 1977Daily Tel. 16 Apr. 16 The flabby, chalky, doughy slabs of our unpalatable plastic muck which masquerades as bread.
c. Special collocations. plastic bullet, a type of projectile made of PVC, which is fired from a riot-gun and is used esp. by security forces in riot-control (see quot. 1976 and rubber bullet s.v. rubber n.1 12 a); plastic money (orig. U.S.), plastic credit cards and similar items considered as a form of money or as a means for making purchases.
1972News Let. (Belfast) 11 Aug. 5/2 New devices for riot control, including a *plastic bullet, have been issued to the Army in Northern Ireland. 1976New Scientist 16 Dec. 672/1 The grim news from Belfast focused attention for the first time on the plastic bullet, the sleeper among the new generation of British anti-riot weapons. Basically it is rather shorter than a rubber bullet and made of PVC. A cylinder 1½ inches in diameter and rather over four inches long, it looks like a thick white lump of candle. 1986N.Y. Times 10 May i. 32/5 Dr. Gross was awarded the Medal for Merit in 1948 for his invention of a plastic bullet for gunnery training in World War II.
1974Time 29 Apr. 93/3 About 503 million credit cards are in use in the U.S. today—proof enough that ‘*plastic money’ is replacing the folding kind. 1977New Scientist 17 Feb. 398/1 Plastic money is taking on a new form that seems sure to make it even more widespread on the British banking scene. 1985R. MacLeod Cut in Diamonds iv. 86 He paid by credit card{ddd}Luckily, we've a reasonable relationship with most of the plastic money people.
B. n.3
I.
1. A plastic material. a. A solid substance that can be readily moulded or shaped.
1905E. H. Angle in E. C. Kirk Amer. Text-bk. Oper. Dentistry (ed. 3) xxiv. 720 Models sufficiently perfect cannot be made from impressions taken in modelling compound or other of the plastics. 1921[see A. 5]. 1923Blackw. Mag. June 722/2 In the evenings Roupin constructed in plastic..a complete model of Haidar Pasha. 1933L. F. Rahm Plastic Molding ii. 19 The molding properties of rubber are such as to make it one of the simplest plastics to handle. 1936L. M. T. Bell Making & Moulding of Plastics i. 13 Dental uses of plastics... Stabalite [composed of china clay, rubber, sulphur, etc.] is used very largely for artificial palates. 1944E. C. Jahn in L. E. Wise Wood Chem. xxiii. 820 In 1942..wood and lignin plastics are still largely in the developmental stage.
b. Any of a large and varied class of substances which are polymers of high molecular weight based on synthetic resins or modified natural polymers and may be obtained in a permanent or rigid form following moulding, extrusion, or similar treatment at a stage during manufacture or processing when they are mouldable or liquid; see also laminated plastic, reinforced plastic. Also used generically (without a and pl.): material of this kind.
In techn. usage the term is usu. held to exclude the synthetic rubbers (elastomers), and sometimes also any plastic in the form of fibres.
1909L. H. Baekeland in Jrnl. Industr. & Engin. Chem. Mar. 156/2 As an insulator..it [sc. Bakelite] is far superior to hard rubber, casein, celluloid, shellac and in fact all plastics. Ibid. 157/1 It can be used for similar purposes like knobs, buttons, knife handles, for which plastics are generally used. 1911E. C. Worden Nitrocellulose Industry II. xiv. 691 Pyroxylin plastic is extensively used for the bits of pipe stems, and consists of ordinary plastic containing..dyestuffs, picric acid, [etc.]. 1915J. E. Crane in A. Rogers Industr. Chem. (ed. 2) xliv. 914 Pyroxylin plastics, variously called celluloid, xylonite,..viscoloid, and other names consist of a mixture or solid solution of cellulose nitrate and camphor. 1928Chem. Abstr. XXII. 4209 Plastics are defined as materials that are horny and elastic at ordinary temp. but can be molded at higher temp. They include (1) cellulose plastics, (2) artificial resins and (3) protein plastics. 1935Economist 7 Dec. 1140/1 The use of plastics in the motor accessory field will undoubtedly increase... Already the fitting of wireless sets as standard equipment on several cars has opened up a..new field for their application. 1941Electronic Engin. XIV. 482 A large percentage of..plastics have good insulation properties, while at the same time the materials are available in a wide variety of forms..from lacquers..through rubber-like materials to the hard and rigid bakelite-type resins. 1945Daily Mirror 27 Sept. 3/1 British-made women's shoes in ‘patent leather’ plastics may be on sale next summer. 1953Kirk & Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. X. 798 When the resin itself is capable of being shaped into a finished article without a plasticizer.., as polystyrene, the terms resin and plastic are interchangeable for that material. 1955Observer 13 Nov. 3/3 Nearly all plastics—except nylon stockings—crept into the house by the back door, disguised as ‘cheap’ substitutes for the real thing—china, glass, wood, metal, silk or wool. Now they have their own status, either as alternatives..or as new materials, to do a new job. 1963H. R. Clauser Encycl. Engin. Materials & Processes 486/2 Silicones are unique among plastics, in that they are semiorganic, i.e., the molecular spine has alternating silicon and oxygen atoms with organic groups attached to the silicon. 1968Kirk & Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) XV. 790 Nylon and poly(ethylene terephthalate) are used both as fibers and plastics. 1973Materials & Technol. VI. viii. 499 Twenty years later [sc. about 1890], casein plastics prepared by reacting together milk protein and formaldehyde were developed in Germany. 1973Sci. Amer. Aug. 107/1 This container can be a baking pan made of sheet metal or plastic.
2. Plastic explosive.
1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France xi. 367 Though they had no plastic, they could get unlimited dynamite from the mines. 1968D. Lampe Last Ditch vii. 75 Plastic is a form of cyclonite,..and is still today the standard military sabotage high explosive. 1973D. Lees Rape of Quiet Town vii. 119 The bank manager type who'd been playing with the plastic had stayed behind. 1978T. Allbeury Lantern Network ix. 112 Parker..showed them how to wire the plastic so that a whole length of track was taken out in a single explosion.
II.
3. attrib. in sense 1 b.
1911E. C. Worden Nitrocellulose Industry II. xiv. 578 The general principles of plastic manufacture. Ibid. 660 The entire field of plastic molding. 1931Brit. Plastics Year Bk. 69 The plastic trade consumes 1,200 tons of wood dust per annum for mouldings. 1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 326 Paper, plastic, and textile plants. 1960I. Wallach Absence of Cello 16 He was a trouble-shooter..for a large plastic corporation. 1969T. C. Thorstensen Pract. Leather Technol. xiv. 235 The increased ‘plastic look’ in leather may, in the long run, harm the marketing position of leather in its competition with synthetic materials.
4. Used attrib. in pl., often to avoid possible confusion with branches I and II of the adj.a. Of, pertaining to, or concerned with plastics; = sense 3.
1925Plastics Oct. 7/1 The plastics industry. 1935Economist 4 Mar. 1042/2 Their interest in the plastics industry, through Mouldrite, Limited, continued to make progress. 1957J. Braine Room at Top 61 He owned a plastics factory, a tannery, a bodywork builders.
b. = sense 9 of the adj.
1934H. Read Art & Industry ii. 90 The wireless cabinet is an example of the encroachment of new plastics materials, such as bakelite, on a province hitherto reserved for wood. 1958Engineering 7 Mar. 320/2 Various tools with plastics handles. 1971Daily Tel. 15 Feb. 4/8 Plastics windows to protect passengers from stone⁓throwing are being installed in trains in the New York area. 1974Brit. Standard 4998 (title) Moulded plastics dustbins.
5. Comb. Instrumental, as plastic-coated, plastic-covered, plastic-lined, plastic-tiled, plastic-topped, plastic-wrapped (so plastic-wrap vb.) adjs. Parasynthetic, as plastic-macked, plastic-mackintoshed.
1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 69/1 The cab framework is constructed of precision steel tubing and the weatherproof roof of plastic-coated nylon fabric. 1977D. MacKenzie Raven & Kamikaze iv. 56 The wire was plastic-coated and copper, the sort of thing used on a radio.
1961House & Garden June 136/2 Even a neat, plastic-covered plunge is not exactly a joy to behold. 1973R. Lewis Blood Money viii. 125 There's a plastic-covered card identifying the dead man.
1969Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 239/3 The walls are of plastic-lined plywood plates. 1979Tucson Mag. Apr. 64/2 Another alternative is a plastic-lined pool.
1964Guardian 9 Sept. 5/8 Plastic-macked parents and hordes of soggy children. 1973J. Wainwright Devil you Don't 25 A plastic-mackintoshed young woman.
1962Listener 10 May 831/3 Plastic-tiled and similar floors also need damp-washing.
1957Observer 13 Oct. 1/2 The Queen and the Duke..walked to a plastic-topped limousine which drew away to drive to Government House. 1973D. Francis Slay-Ride xiii. 159 We sat at a plastic topped table amid travellers with untidy hand luggage.
1968Economist 11 May 69/3 The meat is cut, quick-frozen and plastic-wrapped under contract to supermarkets and to restaurant chains. 1975M. Bradbury Hist. Man ix. 148 Contemporary, plastic-wrapped food. 1978B. Norman To nick Good Body xvi. 132 A lump of plastic-wrapped, processed Cheddar.
Add:[B.] [I.] [1.] c. = plastic money (sense 9 c of the adj.). colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1980Time 29 Sept. 67/2 Visa and MasterCard users will now have to pay more for using plastic. 1985Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Oct. b13/2 It [is] easier than ever to spend money without seeing the real thing. ‘The acceptance of plastic has reached an all-time high,’ John Bennett, senior vice-president of Visa, said. ‘Plastic has become a way of life.’ 1986Sunday Times 21 Sept. 61/5 (heading) Woolies goes for plastic. 1988Which? July 299/2 To use your plastic in a cash machine, you need a personal identification number (PIN).
▪ II. plastic, n.1 Now rare.|ˈplæstɪk|
Also 6–7 plastick(e, 7 plaistique, plastique.
[ad. F. plastique, ad. L. (ars) plastica, plasticē, a. Gr. πλαστική (τεχνή) the plastic art, fem. of πλαστικός plastic a. So Ger. plastik.]
The art of modelling figures: primarily, in clay, wax, etc.; also, in wider sense, in a harder material by sculpture. Also fig.
† (α) sing. Obs.
1598R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo i. 7 Painting, Carving and Plasticke are all but one and the same arte. 1624Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1651) 293 Plastique is not only under Sculpture, but indeed very Sculpture it self. 1684tr. Agrippa's Van. Arts xxv. 70 Of Statuary and Plastick.
(β) In pl. form.
1686Plot Staffordsh. 272 How dame Nature came thus to mis-carry in her plastics. 1850J. Leitch tr. C. O. Müller's Anc. Art §20 (ed. 2) 7 The living plastics of the gymnic games and choral dances were afterwards..exalted in a surprising manner by sculpture in stone and brass.
▪ III. † plastic, n.2 Obs.
[ad. late L. plasticus moulder, sculptor, a. Gr. πλαστικός adj.: see plastic a.]
A modeller, moulder, sculptor; fig. a former, fashioner, creator.
1644Bulwer Chiron. 58 It is impossible for any Painter, or Carver, or Plastique to give right motions to his works or Hand. 1661Rust Origen in Phenix (1721) I. 75 The beautiful Idea, according to which the Plastick works. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 128 'Tis education is our Plastick. 1694R. Burthogge Reason & Nat. Spirits 247 For in this Terrestrial World, as to the several Regions of it, the Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral, it is as certain, that all had but one Plastic, as that the Body of a Man, or any other particular Animal, had not more. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) I. i. ii. 6 Ours is a most fictile world; and man is the most fingent plastic of creatures.
▪ IV. plastic, n.3
see plastic a. B. |