Plastic

Pronunciation: plăs´tĭk

Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter; as, the plastic hand of the Creator.

See plastic Nature working to his end.

- Pope.

Capable of being molded, formed, or modeled, as clay or plaster; - used also figuratively; as, the plastic mind of a child.

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.

Plastic clay
(Geol.) one of the beds of the Eocene period; - so called because used in making pottery.

Plastic element
(Physiol.) one that bears within the germs of a higher form. - Lyell.

Plastic exudation
(Med.) an exudation thrown out upon a wounded surface and constituting the material of repair by which the process of healing is effected.

Plastic foods
(Physiol.) See the second Note under Food.

Plastic force
(Physiol.) See under Force.

Plastic operation
an operation in plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery
that branch of surgery which is concerned with the repair or restoration of lost, injured, or deformed parts of the body.

A substance composed predominantly of a synthetic organic high polymer capable of being cast or molded; many varieties of plastic are used to produce articles of commerce (after 1900). [MW10 gives origin of word as 1905]

Noun	1.	plastic - 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
Adj.	1.	plastic - used of the imagination; "material...transformed by the plastic power of the imagination"--Coleridge
	2.	plastic - capable of being molded or modeled (especially of earth or clay or other soft material); "plastic substances such as wax or clay" Synonyms: moldable, fictile
	3.	plastic - capable of being influenced or formed; "the plastic minds of children"; "a pliant nature" Synonyms: pliant

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