mustard plaister

mustard plaister (plural mustard plaisters)

1. (archaic) Alternative spelling of mustard plaster
   • 1866, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXII, in Felix Holt, the Radical […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 111:

     There's no physic'll cure without a blessing, and with a blessing I know I've seen a mustard plaister work when there was no more smell nor strength in the mustard than so much flour.

   • 1878, Catherine Jane Wood, A Handbook of Nursing, for the Home and the Hospital, page 60:

     If the mustard plaister is applied without mixing with meal, a little flour should be sprinkled in with it, and a fold of thin muslin be laid over the face of it — this prevents particles of mustard remaining on the skin, the removal of which causes much annoyance to the patient.

   • 1982, Fred Kitchen, Life on the Land, page 37:

     You can't beat hot ale an' ginger, missus, for a cowd. An' a mustard plaister if it's inflimation.

2. Synonym of yellowback
   • 1980, Something about the Author, volume 18, page 55:

     Mr. Evans was one of the pioneers in the development of colour-printing, and not only did a quantity of ordinary trade work in this way, but also choice books. One of the mustard plaisters.

   • 1981, American Book Collector, volume 2, page 3:

     Evans hired Crane primarily for covers for "yellow-backs" or "mustard plaisters," cheap railway fiction issued in gaudy yellow-papered boards.

   • 2019, Massimo Rospocher, Jeroen Salman, Hannu Salmi, Crossing Borders, Crossing Cultures:

     The illustrator Walter Crane (1845-1915) emphasised their color in his Reminiscences, using the synonym "mustard" when rcealling his production of "covers of cheap railway novels, which we sometimes called, from their generally yellow hue and sensational character mustard plaisters”.