a beginning from which an enterprise is launched; "he uses other people's ideas as a springboard for his own"; "reality provides the jumping-off point for his illusions"; "the point of departure of international comparison cannot be an institution but must be the function it carries out"
an elastic material obtained from the latex sap of trees (especially trees of the genera Hevea and Ficus) that can be vulcanized and finished into a variety of products
any of various synthetic elastic materials whose properties resemble natural rubber
returned for lack of funds; "a rubber check"; "a no-good check"
a surface of hardened plaster (as on a wall or ceiling); "there were cracks in the plaster"
a mixture of lime or gypsum with sand and water; hardens into a smooth solid; used to cover walls and ceilings
coat with plaster; "daub the wall"
apply a heavy coat to
apply a plaster cast to; "plaster the broken arm"
affix conspicuously; "She plastered warnings all over the wall"
cover conspicuously or thickly, as by pasting something on; "The demonstrators plastered the hallways with posters"; "She let the walls of the apartment be beplastered with stucco"
marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces
a tool resembling a hammer but with a large head (usually wooden); used to drive wedges or ram down paving stones or for crushing or beating or flattening or smoothing
a light drumstick with a rounded head that is used to strike percussion instruments
a sports implement with a long handle and a head like a hammer; used in sports (polo or croquet) to hit a ball
a compound made artificially by chemical reactions
of a proposition whose truth value is determined by observation or facts; "`all men are arrogant' is a synthetic proposition"
systematic combining of root and modifying elements into single words
involving or of the nature of synthesis (combining separate elements to form a coherent whole) as opposed to analysis; "limnology is essentially a synthetic science composed of elements...that extend well beyond the limits of biology"- P.S.Welch
not genuine or natural; "counterfeit rhetoric that flourishes when passions are synthetic"- George Will