court plaster

English

Alternative forms
  • court-plaster

Etymology

Originally applied as patches on the face by ladies at court.

Noun

court plaster (countable and uncountable, plural court plasters)

  1. A sticking plaster made by coating taffeta or silk on one side with some adhesive substance, commonly a mixture of isinglass and glycerine.
    • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, pages 52–53:
      "And so you actually put this piece of court plaister by for his sake!" said Emma, recovering from her state of shame and feeling divided between wonder and amusement.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “court plaster”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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