pasteboard, n. (a.)
(ˈpeɪstbɔəd)
[f. paste n. or v. + board n. (I and II are really of distinct formation.)]
A. n. I. † 1. A substitute for a thin wooden board made by pasting sheets of paper together; esp. a board of a book so made (cf. board n. 4). Obs.
| 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Consecr. Abps. etc. (Colophon), Bounde in lether, in paste bordes or claspes. 1612 Sturtevant Metallica (1854) 66 The superficiall [model] describeth only the..lineaments in paper, bordes or past-bords. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. vii, It was as thick and stiff as a Past-board. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 32 Put it upon a dry fresh pasteboard, and, covering it with fresh blossom paper, let it remain in the press [etc.]. |
2. a. As a material: A stiff firm substance made by pasting together, compressing, and rolling, three or more sheets of paper.
These sheets consist of ‘outsides’ and ‘middles’; in ordinary pasteboard, the ‘middle’ is of inferior quality, and generally of a greyish colour.
Cardboard is pasteboard made of superior paper, and of the same quality and colour throughout; a finer and more highly-finished form made with starch paste is called
ivory board. The name ‘pasteboard’ is sometimes improperly given to
pulpboard, made not by pasting, but of compressed paper pulp.
| 1562 in Comm. Ld. Grey of Wilton (Camden) 59 Item iiij. greate schoocheons wrowght with metall on payste boorde. 1606 Peacham Graphice (1612) 94 Take of the fairest and smoothest pastboord you can get. 1793 Beddoes Math. Evid. 21 A model of each triangle cut out in pasteboard. 1858 Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., Hydrost., etc. 196 A conical reflecting shade, the best material for which is paper or paste-board. |
b. fig. As the type of something flimsy, unsubstantial, or counterfeit:
cf. B. b.
| 1829 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 270 Doings in the world of pasteboard. 1838 Emerson Addr. Cambridge, Mass. Wks. (Bohn) II. 203 The new worship..to the goddess of Reason,—to-day, pasteboard and fillagree, and ending to-morrow in madness and murder. |
3. slang. A card.
a. A visiting-card.
b. A playing-card; also, playing-cards collectively.
c. A railway-ticket.
| a. 1837 T. Hook Jack Brag i, They lodge their pasteboard and away they go. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis xxxvi, ‘We shall only have to leave our pasteboards, Arthur’. He used the word ‘pasteboards’, having heard it from some of the ingenious youth of the nobility about town, and as a modern phrase suited to Pen's tender years. 1889 ‘J. S. Winter’ Mrs. Bob (1891) 70 The unutterable fag of paying calls and leaving pasteboards. |
| b. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. xv, Three honours in their hand, and some good court cards,..hour after hour..delightfully..spent over the pasteboard. 1896 Farjeon Betrayal J. Fordham iii. 277 I'm that neat with the pasteboards. I can shuffle 'em any way I want. |
| c. 1856 ‘Ockside’ & ‘Doesticks’ Hist. & Rec. Elephant Club 29 Putting his physiognomy before the seven by nine aperture through which the money goes in and the pasteboard comes out. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xxxvi. 771 The call of ‘Tickets, gents’, showed one man without the pasteboard. 1901 Daily Chron. 11 Nov. 5/2 Season ticket holders may not travel indefinitely without producing their ‘pasteboards’. |
II. 4. Cookery. (Usually with hyphen.) A board on which paste or dough is rolled out for making pastry, etc. (
Cf. board n. 2.)
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Paste-board, a wooden board on which dough is rolled out for pastry. 1888 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. §1674 Make the paste, using a very clean pasteboard and rolling-pin. 1894 A. Robertson Nuggets 51 She dropped the rolling-pin on the paste-board. |
5. The board used by a paper-hanger in cutting and pasting wall-paper.
| 1901 J. Black's Carp. & Build., Home Handicr. 41 The lengths of paper should be laid..on the pasteboard supported by the trestles. |
B. attrib. (or as adj.) a. Made of pasteboard.
| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 76/2 As if we practised in a paste-board case. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. Wks. (1851) 42 To blow them down like a past-bord House built of Court-Cards. 1668 Wood Life Mar. (O.H.S.) II. 131 Bound with a past-board cover and vellum over it. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 290 Put them into a Paste⁓board Box. 1885 J. K. Jerome On the Stage xii. 105 The pantomime was still running, and Mat played a demon with a pasteboard head. |
b. fig. Unsubstantial; unreal, counterfeit, sham.
| 1659 Torriano, Signóre Cartóne, a pastboard Lord, a Lord of Clouts. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 150 The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade. 1898 Wyndham Poems Shaks. p. lxx, The alarums and excursions of these paste-board hostilities. |
C. Comb., as
pasteboard-cutter,
pasteboard-maker;
pasteboard-like,
pasteboard-looking adjs.;
pasteboard-wasp, a species of wasp which makes a nest resembling pasteboard (
cf. paper-wasp).
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1636/1 *Pasteboard-cutter,..for grooving and cutting pasteboard strips employed for making boxes. |
| 1662 Gerbier Principles 18 Nor are the wooden Shutters such *Pastboard-like things, as are..put on the..London..Houses. |
| 1849 E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 195 The Agency..was a large *pasteboard-looking house. |
| 1669–96 Aubrey Lives, Cavendish (1898) I. 153 His wife..sold this incomparable collection..to the *past-board makers for wast paper. |
| 1864–5 Wood Homes without H. xiv. (1868) 259 The nest..of the *Pasteboard Wasp (Chartergus nidulans). |
Hence
ˈpasteboardy a. (
nonce-wd.)
| 1878 Scribner's Mag. XV. 574/2 The construction is of the thinnest, most pasteboardy kind. |