plastic

A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.countableuncountable

• Reducing plastic waste is a crucial problem for today’s environment, and whether it’s recyclable and biodegradable phone cases or sustainable fashion, there are plenty of eco-friendly products that can help you reduce your footprint.
• These endocrine disruptors are everywhere: plastics, shampoos, cosmetics, cushions, pesticides, canned foods and A.T.M. receipts. They often aren’t on labels and can be difficult to avoid.

Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.colloquialcountablemetonymically

• I knew the war between cash and credit cards was over and plastic had won, hands down, when even Mickey D's started taking credit and debit cards.

Insincerity; fakeness.countablefigurativelyslang

A person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population; a narcissistic, affected person.countablefigurativelyslang

• 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.
• Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic.

An instance of plastic surgery.countableslang

• Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it.

A sculptor, moulder.countableobsoleteuncountable

Any solid but malleable substance.archaiccountableuncountable

Synonym of Plastic Paddy.countableslanguncountable

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.
• [A]nd it is highly probable that along with more splendid habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction.

Producing tissue.archaic

Creative, formative.dated

• Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect
• See plastic Nature working to this end.

Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.

Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.

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.
• 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

Inferior or not the real thing.derogatoryfiguratively

• The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie
• 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.

Fake, insincere, especially in a shallow and conformist way pretending to smoothness and glossy flawlessness.figurativelyinformal

• 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.
• Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go

Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.informal

• A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]

Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.informal

• I was checking into my motel while a Red-whiskered Bulbul called outside – a Queensland plastic rarity which was somewhat amusing.