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Glite Dictionary
to plasticize

to plasticize

1 8.4
Make a material soft and easy to shape by adding a chemical
  • verb
  • /ˈplæstɪˌsaɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : plasticizar
  • A course of twenty-eight black, red, and white letters in precision-cut, plasticized paper creates a powerful aesthetic moment.
  • made of plasticized

Examples

  • We installed a furnace tracking device and learned that plasticizing the windows ($10 fix) dropped our fuel usage from 65%.

    Blog text (30)

  • What struck me was the amazing amounts of money that had gone into streamlining and corporatizing your experience, plasticizing the menus, blown-up pictures of the food, fake decorator items, and how little was spent on the food, the plating, or the experience of eating.

    Blog text (33)

  • They can plasticize it, polymerize it, do whatever they want to do with it.

    The Abyss (1989)

  • This one was made of plasticized paper and had been rolled and unrolled many times.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The stripper and paint literally peel off attached to the plasticized paper and can be jammed into a trash bag and out the door fast.

    Blog text (15)

  • The manufacturer decided to plasticize the rubber to make it more flexible for use in various products.

  • By adding a special chemical, they can plasticize the material easily for better molding.

  • To improve durability and flexibility, the engineers plasticized the insulation material before installation.

Antonyms

to harden
27 2.6

Make something hard or solid

How Flexible

to melt
362 1.0
to soften
55 1.3
to plasticize
  • Specialized
1 8.4
to harden
27 2.6
to stiffen
25 3.7

Surface Forms

plasticize infinitive
plasticized past
plasticized past participle
plasticizing present participle
plasticizes third person singular

Morphology

plasticize = plastic (semi-transparent) = plastic + ize

The word clearly combines 'plastic' with '-ize', but the verb has a specialized technical sense of making a material more flexible rather than a fully predictable everyday meaning.

Etymology

The word plasticize comes from plastic, which comes from an old Greek word meaning 'to shape' or 'able to be shaped', and the ending -ize meaning 'to make'. So to plasticize something is to 'make it shapeable' or flexible, usually by adding a chemical that softens the material.