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Alabaster vs Plaster - What's the difference?

alabaster | plaster |

As nouns the difference between alabaster and plaster

is that alabaster is alabaster while plaster is a bandage, a band-aid.

alabaster

English

(wikipedia alabaster)

Alternative forms

* alabastre (obsolete) * alablaster (obsolete)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.
  • * c. 1596 , , The Merchant of Venice , Act I, Scene I, lines 89-90
    • Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
    Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster ?
  • * 1867 '', ''Paradiso , Canto XV, lines 22-23] (translated by [[w:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow])
    • Nor was the flame dissevered from its ribbon
  • *:: But like a radiant fillet ran along
  • *:: So that fire seemed it behind alabaster .
  • * 1915 , The New York Times , " Egyptian Antiquities for Metropolitan" (pdf), 15 May
    • One of the striking relics found at the tomb, was a Canopic portrait head of Queen Tii, made entirely of alabaster except the eyes and eyebrows, which were inlaid lapis lazuli and osidian.
  • (historical) A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Made of alabaster
    • The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock.
  • Resembling alabaster: white, pale, translucent.
    • An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.

    Quotations

    * 1594 , William Shakespeare, " The Rape of Lucrece", lines 418-420 *: With more than admiration he admir’d *:: Her azure veins, her alabaster skin, *:: Her coral lips, her snow-white dimpled chin. * 1611 , King James Version of the Bible, Mark 14:3 *: And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. * before 1887 , Emily Dickinson, " Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers" *: Safe in their alabaster chambers *: Untouched by morning, untouched by noon *: Sleep the meek members of the resurrection, *: Rafters of satin, and roof of stone. * 1895 , Katherine Lee Bates, "" *: Thy alabaster cities gleam *: Undimmed by human tears! *

    plaster

    English

    (wikipedia plaster)

    Alternative forms

    * plaister * plastre (obsolete)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes.
  • (countable, New Zealand, British) A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.
  • (uncountable) A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water, sometimes with the addition of fibres, that hardens to a smooth solid and is used for coating walls and ceilings.
  • (countable) A cast made of plaster of Paris and gauze; plaster cast.
  • (uncountable) plaster of Paris.

    • Derived terms

    * plasterboard * gypsum plaster * plaster cast * plaster lath * plaster and lath; lath and plaster

    See also

    * cement board * lath * gypsum board * gyprock * sheetrock * wallboard * drywall

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cover or coat something with plaster, or apply a plaster.
    • Her face was plastered in mud.
  • To hide or cover up, as if with plaster.
    • The radio station plastered the buses and trains with its advertisement.

    Derived terms

    * court-plaster * plasterboard * plastered * plasterer

    See also

    * drywall * sheetrock

    Anagrams

    * ----