Literary notes about Plastered (AI summary)
In literature, "plastered" is used to evoke vivid imagery by describing the act of coating or covering surfaces or even characters with a substance. It appears both in literal contexts—describing walls, ceilings, and houses that are coated with lime, clay, or mortar ([1], [2], [3])—and in more figurative ones, where characters’ hair or skin is smoothed down or coated with mud, snow, or even advertisements ([4], [5], [6]). The term conveys transformation as well as decay or renewal, whether illustrating the meticulous repair of a room ([7], [8]) or the altered physical state of a character, such as hair plastered over the brow ([9], [10]). This layered usage enriches descriptions, adding texture and depth to both architectural and bodily portrayals.
- It is a three-story house, with other houses contiguous,—an old timber mansion, though now plastered and painted of a yellowish line.
— from Passages from the English Notebooks, Volume 2. by Nathaniel Hawthorne - There was a low plastered ceiling to a part of it; the rest was open, to the ridge of the tiled roof, and there were beams across.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - It was dug out under the wing of the house, was plastered and cemented, with a stairway and an outside door by which the men came and went.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - He was immaculate in white jacket and apron and his hair was plastered over his brow with infinite correctness.
— from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane - He was surrounded by a group of boys, motionless as statues, and plastered over with snow.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - In truth, he presented a sorry spectacle, being literally plastered with mud.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie - out on a flat table heated from beneath by fuel enclosed in a plastered chamber, and twisted by hand.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow - Both rooms were plastered and whitewashed—the plaster laid directly upon the earth walls, as it used to be in dugouts.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - The hair was peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - His face was fresher, fuller, his hair stood up jauntily in front, and was plastered down at the sides.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
