plastic

Etymology

From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”).

noun

1. A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.
   Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
2. (colloquial, metonymically) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
   It's all about fast cars and cussing each other / but it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic / and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic. 2008, Lily Allen, The Fear
3. (figurative, slang) insincerity; fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.
   Cady: You know I couldn't invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic. Janis: Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore. You're plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic. 2004, Rosalind Wiseman, Tina Fey, Mean Girls
   Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic. 2011, Emily Kapnek, Suburgatory
4. (slang, countable) An instance of plastic surgery.
   Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it. 1951, Arnold Hano, The Big Out, page 146
5. (obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.
6. (archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.

adj

1. Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.
   the rage […] betook itself at last to certain missile weapons; which, though from their plastic nature they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady. , Folio Society 1973, page 103
   Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings. 1898, Journal of Microscopy, page 256
   while the broad pattern of connections between brain regions is similar in every healthy human brain, their details – their number, size and strength – are thought to underpin our individuality, as synapses are ‘plastic’, shaped by experience. 2012, Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review, number 399
2. (medicine, now rare) Producing tissue.
3. (dated) Creative, formative.
   Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect
4. (biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
5. Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
6. Made of plastic.
   A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess
   A green plastic watering can / For a fake Chinese rubber plant / In a fake plastic earth / That she bought from a rubber man / In a town full of rubber plans / To get rid of itself 1995, Radiohead (lyrics and music), “Fake Plastic Trees”, in The Bends
7. Inferior or not the real thing.
   The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie 1969, Lowell D. Streiker, The gospel of irreligious religion, page 83
   People always try to say that we're garage rock, but that scene is so plastic. Some dude in a band has tight jeans, dyed black hair, and a starving girlfriend with bangs, and people call it indie rock. It's so gross. 2007, Daniel Sinker, We owe you nothing: Punk Planet: the collected interviews, page 238
   Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize... 2008, Matt James Mason, The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism
8. (figurative, informal, of a person) fake; insincere.
   He kissed the white woman once, and it was so artificial, so plastic (that's the word, plastic) that one wondered why did they bother at all. 1966, Calvin C. Hernton, White papers for white Americans, page 67
   Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go 1967, “Plastic People”, in Frank Zappa (music), Absolutely Free, performed by The Mothers of Invention
   Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes 1971, Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics and music), “Lady Day and John Coltrane”, in Pieces of a Man
   In fact it seems as though there are two kinds of people in the world: real people and plastic people, as the Flower Children used to say. 1973, Eric Berne, What do you say after you say hello?, page 120
   But I don't think she would be happy in Los Angeles — it's so plastic and cheap and they expect the women to be whores to get anywhere. 2006, Catherine Coulter, Born to Be Wild, page 71
   We're plastic but we'll still have fun! 2009, Lady Gaga, Paparazzi
   And further, I don't see anything in American life – for myself – to aspire to. Nothing at all. It's all so very false. So shallow, so plastic, so morally and ethically corrupt. 2014, James Baldwin, James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations