Plastic

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

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. Plastic clay (Geol.), one of the beds of the Eocene period; -- so called because used in making pottery. Lyell. -- Plastic element (Physiol.), one that bears within the germs of a higher form. -- 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.

4. 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]