Plastic Definition–noun | 1. | Often, plastics. any of a group of synthetic or natural organic materials that may be shaped when soft and then hardened, including many types of resins, resinoids, polymers, cellulose derivatives, casein materials, and proteins: used in place of other materials, as glass, wood, and metals, in construction and decoration, for making many articles, as coatings, and, drawn into filaments, for weaving. They are often known by trademark names, as Bakelite, Vinylite, or Lucite. | | 2. | a credit card, or credit cards collectively, usually made of plastic: He had a whole pocketful of plastic. | | 3. | money, payment, or credit represented by the use of a credit card or cards. | | 4. | something, or a group of things, made of or resembling plastic: The entire meal was served on plastic. | –adjective | 6. | capable of being molded or of receiving form: clay and other plastic substances. | | 7. | produced by molding: plastic figures. | | 8. | having the power of molding or shaping formless or yielding material: the plastic forces of nature. | | 9. | being able to create, esp. within an art form; having the power to give form or formal expression: the plastic imagination of great poets and composers. | | 10. | Fine Arts. | a. | concerned with or pertaining to molding or modeling; sculptural. | | b. | relating to three-dimensional form or space, esp. on a two-dimensional surface. | | c. | pertaining to the tools or techniques of drawing, painting, or sculpture: the plastic means. | | d. | characterized by an emphasis on formal structure: plastic requirements of a picture. | | | 11. | pliable; impressionable: the plastic mind of youth. | | 12. | giving the impression of being made of or furnished with plastic: We stayed at one of those plastic motels. | | 13. | artificial or insincere; synthetic; phony: jeans made of cotton, not some plastic substitute; a plastic smile. | | 14. | lacking in depth, individuality, or permanence; superficial, dehumanized, or mass-produced: a plastic society interested only in material acquisition. | | 15. | of or pertaining to the use of credit cards: plastic credit; plastic money. | | 17. | Surgery. concerned with or pertaining to the remedying or restoring of malformed, injured, or lost parts: a plastic operation. | |
From Dictionary
Related topics from Britannicaplastic
polymeric material that has the capability of being molded or shaped, usually by the application of heat and pressure. This property of plasticity, often found in combination with other special ...
plastic surgery
surgical specialty concerned with the correction of disfigurement, restoration of impaired function, and improvement of physical appearance. It is largely concerned with the bodily surface and with ...
foamed plastic
synthetic resin converted into a spongelike mass with a closed-cell or open-cell structure, either of which may be flexible or rigid, used for a variety of products including cushioning materials, ...
Business and Industry Review
In 1997 the world used 130 million metric tons of plastic materials. In terms of volume, the most common plastic was high-density polyethylene (HDPE), used mainly in the manufacture of bottles and ...
recycling
Plastics, too, account for almost 10 percent by weight of the content of municipal garbage. Plastic containers and other household products are increasingly recycled, and, like paper, these must be ...
Business and Industry Review
The plastics industry, relatively immune to the business recession of the early 1990s, continued its healthy growth during 1996. In terms of production, the major plastic materials in 1995, the last ...
Business and Industry Review
World production of plastics in 1997 reached 286 billion lb and was projected to grow to 330 billion lb by the year 2000 (1 lb = 0.454 kg). In the U.S., production of 78 billion lb valued at $275 ...
technology, history of
The quality of plasticity is one that had been used to great effect in the crafts of metallurgy and ceramics. The use of the word plastics as a collective noun, however, refers not so much to the ...
Industrial Review
Although it was calculated that world consumption of plastics topped 100 million metric tons in 1993 for the first time, with a growth rate from 1992 of 3-4%, in all developed countries the industry ...
Business and Industry Review
Although economic growth continued in both the U.S. and Europe in 1995, with plastics somewhat outpacing the overall trend, the materials manufacturing industry was again taken by surprise by an ...
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