plaster

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English plaster, plastre, from Old English plaster, from late Latin plastrum, shortened from Classical Latin emplastrum (“a plaster, bandage”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman plastre. Displaced native Old English clīþa. The verb is from Middle English plastren, from the noun.

1. A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes.
2. A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.
3. A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water, sometimes with the addition of fibres, that hardens to a smooth solid and is used for coating walls and ceilings.

   “Near-synonym: stucco (dedicated term for exterior type in some dialects)”

4. A similar material used for exterior walls.
5. A cast made of plaster of Paris and gauze; a plaster cast.
6. Plaster of Paris.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English plaster, plastre, from Old English plaster, from late Latin plastrum, shortened from Classical Latin emplastrum (“a plaster, bandage”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman plastre. Displaced native Old English clīþa. The verb is from Middle English plastren, from the noun.

1. To cover or coat something with plaster; to render.

   “to plaster a wall”

2. To apply a plaster to.

   “to plaster a wound”

3. To smear with some viscous or liquid substance.

   “Her face was plastered with mud.”

4. To hide or cover up, as if with plaster; to cover thickly.

   “The radio station plastered the buses and trains with its advertisement.”

   “If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.”

5. To bombard heavily or overwhelmingly; to overwhelm (with weapons fire).

   “Yeah, if you think that was bad... having, obviously, here, being people in the modern day and knowing something about the historical tactics used at the Battle of Samar, we did have, at one point, the American battleline sailing itself into a rain squall, staying in the rain squall, using large numbers of destroyers (with, obviously, all their smoke generators) to increase the cover in the rain squall and maintain it when the wet squall seemed to start dying off, and, through that, they just went "Right, activate radar, hello everybody, we can see you, you can't see us", and plastered everything in 14-and-16-inch gunfire until everything was broken, burning, and not able to fire back, and then they popped out for the coup de grâce.”

6. To smooth over.