papier-mâché

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papier-mâché

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Borrowed from French papier mâché (literally “chewed-up paper”). See French papier and mâcher, related to the English words paper and masticate, respectively.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpapɪ.eɪ ˈmaʃeɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpeɪpɚ məˈʃeɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃeɪ, -eɪ

papier-mâché (uncountable)

1. Torn-up paper and other possible materials mixed with paste or glue used to create, when the mass is dried, a durable sculptural object.
   • 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 236:

     She sat completely alone at the very back of the sea-themed restaurant, amid papier-mâché starfish and plastic shrimp.

• carton-pierre

• collage
• decoupage

papier-mâché (third-person singular simple present papier-mâchés, present participle papier-mâchéing, simple past and past participle papier-mâchéd or papier-mâchéed)

1. To apply papier-mâché to.
   • 1954, Emmett Kelly, F[rancis] Beverly Kelley, Clown, page 116:

     I have had it rebuilt, papier-mâchéd inside and otherwise repaired through the years.

   • 1959, SchoolArts, page 21:

     When the bodies of the fish were finished, fins were cut from cardboard to the desired shapes, pinned with straight pins to the fish, and papier-mâchéd in place.

   • 1990, Sarah Ellis, Next-Door Neighbors, New York, N.Y.: Margaret K. McElderry Books, →ISBN, page 78:

     In a giddy moment they had also papier-mâchéd the legs of the card table.

   • 2016, Isy Suttie, The Actual One: How I Tried, and Failed, to Remain Twenty-Something for Ever, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN:

     I instead constructed ‘shelves’ inside Roy’s stomach, made from mesh, which I then also papier mâchéd.

   • 2019, Annabeth Bondor-Stone, Connor White, Jaclyn Hyde, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

     I papier-mâchéed the entire volcano, constructed the tiny town out of toothpicks, and doublechecked the calculations to make sure it’s all to scale.

   • 2020, Nancy Snyder, Lions for Ajax, Shepherd Press, →ISBN:

     Then he taped another cardboard tube on and papier-mâchéd it.