paste

Pluralpastes

Formspastes, pasting, pasted

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Any soft, moist mixture, whatever it is made of or used for.

   Stir baking soda and water into a paste and scrub the stained grout with it.

   After the rain, the dust on the trail turned into a slippery gray paste.

   Similarmush, sludge

   Note

   This is the general meaning that every more specific paste narrows from. English took the word through Old French paste from Late Latin pasta, itself borrowed from Greek pastá. Cooks and decorators each fixed it on one mixture, such as tomato or fish paste or wallpaper glue. Here only the texture counts, whatever the ingredients. It is the word you reach for after into: grind garlic into a paste, work clay into a paste.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A soft, moist mixture used as an adhesive, especially for hanging wallpaper and similar materials.

   Brush the paste evenly over the back of each strip before hanging it.

   The old concert posters had been put up with a homemade paste that the rain soon softened.

   Similarglue, adhesive

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To insert text, an image, audio, video or other material that has previously been copied or cut from somewhere else.

   Select the paragraph, cut it, and paste it at the end of the document.

   She pasted the full error message into the support form so the team could see what went wrong.

   Note

   Behind every paste is the clipboard, the temporary store that copying or cutting fills; its contents land at the cursor and replace any selected text. Because the clipboard usually keeps what it holds, one copy can be pasted in several places. The verb takes into or at for the destination (paste it into the form) and completes the fixed pairs copy and paste and cut and paste.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A soft, moist mixture of pounded food, such as one made from fish, liver or tomatoes.

   The cook pounded the anchovies and capers into a salty paste for the dressing.

   The market stall sells a dozen curry and shrimp pastes in small glass jars.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To fasten something with paste, or to make it stick as if with paste.

   Volunteers paste campaign flyers on lampposts all over town.

   The storm pasted wet leaves all over the windshield.

   Similarstick, glue, plaster

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A soft, moist mixture of flour, fat or similar ingredients, used in making pastry.

   Knead the flour, lard and water into a firm paste, then chill it before rolling.

   A rich paste made with butter and egg yolks gives the tart a tender crust.

   Similardough

   Note

   This is the baker's sense, and the word behind it came through Old French paste from Late Latin pasta, itself borrowed from Greek. That same source runs under the pounded foods, the wallpaper adhesive and the glass of paste jewels. In a recipe it is described by texture or richness: a firm paste, a rich one with butter and yolks.

7. 7
   verbslangtransitive

   To defeat an opponent decisively or by a large margin.

   The Hawks pasted their rivals 6–1 to clinch the division title.

   Every time we play chess, my little brother manages to paste me.

   Similarthrash, trounce, crush, hammer, clobber

   Note

   The beating here happens on the scoreboard: the word carries the slang verb for hitting over to games and contests. It works as easily in the passive (the visitors got pasted) as in the active. Being slang, it belongs to sports talk and friendly rivalry rather than to formal reporting.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A hard glass containing lead, or an artificial gemstone made from that glass.

   The jeweler confirmed that the stones in the old brooch were paste, not diamonds.

   Under the shop lights, the cut pastes in the tiara sparkled like real gems.

   Note

   The word covers both the glass and the stones cut from it, so it works as a mass noun (the stones were paste) and as a count noun (a tiara set with pastes). In casual speech it is a frank label for imitation: Nan Goldin calls paste “a nickname for fake diamonds” in Alex Vadukul's “Nan Goldin Is Ready for Oscar Night” (2023).

9. 9
   verbslangtransitive

   To hit or beat a person or thing.

   The bouncer pasted him in the jaw before he could throw a punch.

   Big hitters wait for a slow pitch they can paste into the bleachers.

   Similarhit, smack, whack, punch, belt

   Note

   The slang verb probably began as baste, “to beat,” altered under the pull of the noun paste. It takes the person or thing struck as its object and can add where the blow lands with in: William Saroyan's The Human Comedy (1943) has a man get up and paste Byfield in the mouth.

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