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Food vs Plastic - What's the difference?

food | plastic |

As nouns the difference between food and plastic

is that food is (uncountable) any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life while plastic is plastic.

As an adjective plastic is

plastic.

food

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) Any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • (countable) A foodstuff.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
  • Mozart and Bach are food for my soul.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Shakespeare)
  • This may prove food to my displeasure.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Wordsworth)
  • In this moment there is life and food / For future years.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "food": raw, cooked, baked, fried, grilled, processed, healthy, unhealthy, wholesome, nutritious, safe, toxic, tainted, adulterated, tasty, delicious, fresh, stale, sweet, sour, spicy, exotic, marine.

    Synonyms

    * (substance consumed by living organisms) bellytimber, chow (slang), comestible (formal), eats (slang), feed (for domesticated animals), fodder (for domesticated animals), foodstuffs, nosh (slang), nourishment, sustenance, victuals * (anything intended to supply energy or nourishment of an entity or idea) brainfood * (foodstuff) bellytimber, foodstuff

    Derived terms

    * cat food * comfort food * dog food * fast food * food bank * food chain * food fight * food for thought * food pyramid * food stamp * foodstuff * foody * health food * junk food * rabbit food * seafood * soul food * whole food

    See also

    * breakfast * brunch * dinner * dunch * lunch, luncheon * meal * supper *

    Statistics

    *

    plastic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * plastick (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.
  • (archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.
  • A synthetic, thermoplastic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=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.}}
  • Any similar synthetic material, not necessarily thermoplastic.
  • (colloquial) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
  • *
  • (slang) Fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * bioplastic * plastic explosive

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.
  • * 1749 , (Henry Fielding), , Folio Society 1973, p. 103:
  • 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.
  • * 1898 , Journal of Microscopy (page 256)
  • Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.
  • * 2012 , Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review , issue 399:
  • 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.
  • (dated) Creative, formative.
  • * Prior
  • the plastic hand of the Creator
  • * Alexander Pope
  • See plastic Nature working to his end.
  • (biology) 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.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=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.}}
  • Inferior or not the real thing; ersatz.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, title=The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism
  • , page=, author=Matt James Mason, year=2008, passage=Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...}}
  • (slang) Fake, snobbish. Usually refers to a person.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * malleable, flexible, pliant * ersatz * fake

    Antonyms

    * elastic * genuine

    Derived terms

    * plastic beauty * plastician * plasticity * plasticizer * plasticine * plastic surgery * thermoplastic