plastic, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

plastic adj.

synthetic, false, insincere.

1967		Frank Zappa ‘Plastic People’ 🎵 Plastic people, oh baby, you’re such a drag.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 230: No radical-chick cunt in a bitch T-shirt was calling his job plastic.
1988		Ice-T ‘Radio Suckers’ 🎵 You can get a plastic rapper from any ol’ dispenser.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Plastic gangster. One who makes a deliberate but often transparent attempt to be a ‘heavy’. A prisoner who tries to establish himself as a person of influence, but is generally considered with contempt.
1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 22: plastic cockney n. A mockney. A posh person who affects to be an Eastender, eg. Ben Elton, Nigel Kennedy, Shane McGowan.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 142/1: plastic adj. sham, false, deceptive, substandard plastic chaplain a prison chaplain who does not have the interest of the inmates truly at heart [...] plastic fantastic (also plastic fulla) = plastic gangster [...] plastic gangster an inmate attempting to appear tougher than he is and/or to claim more prison experience and status than he has. plastic Maori a Maori inmate or officer perceived to scorn his cultural background and to be disloyal to his fellow Maori [...] plastic Saa a Samoan who displays similar behaviour as described under plastic Maori. plastic screw an officer who does not do his job properly.
2004		T. Fey Mean Girls [movie script] -Who are the Plastics? - They’re teen royalty.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] They were also feared by some of the wannabes and plastic gangsters.
2009		Financial Times Weekend Mag. 10–11 Jan. 33/1: The officers’ perceived lack of authority in certain critical situations has led some [...] to deride them as ‘plastic police’.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 83: Wanted to be one of the chaps [...] pisshead plastic gangster.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 106: The munja [...] never quite up to their plastic-toff standards.

In compounds

plastic hippie (n.) [hippie n.² (3)]

a part-time or uncommitted hippie n.² (3), more interested in the hedonistic and clothes-wearing side of the movement than in its philosophies.

1969		Gandalf’s Garden 6 n.d. 11: plastic hippie: one who thinks he is hip by wearing the clothes and hairstyles of the ‘Scene’, but does not have the remotest idea of Under- and Overground thinking, mental attitudes and sense of communication. There is no love or response in the eyes of such when you greet them.
1973		E.F. Droge Patolman 60: On the weekends the East Village is inundated with thrill seekers and what the real Hippies call ‘Plastic Hippies’.
2005		E. White My Lives 270: Stan and I thought of ourselves as bohemians, or ‘Plastic Hippies,’ since we we wore coats and ties to the office and only switched to our jeans at night.

plastic paddy (n.) [Paddy n. (1)]

the children of first-generation Irish immigrants to the UK.

1996		Irish Times 17 Feb. n.p.: There are many kinds of London-Irish – the ones who came with cardboard suitcases and broken hearts in the old days; the modern ones, who happen to be in London but might be in Paris or New York; and the ‘plastic Paddies’ [...] who are mostly like the urban young anywhere [BS].
1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 22: plastic paddy n. A person who affects to be Irish, e.g. Shane McGowan.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Plastic Paddy (n): someone of Irish descent who has all the accoutrements of Irishness – ends up being a cliché.

plastic people (n.)

conventional people, characterized by their rejection (and fear) of alternative modes of thought or action.

1969		Gandalf’s Garden 6 n.d. 11: plastic people are those of a stereotyped mentality, nourished by mass-media and having stereotyped reactions in any given situation without any attempt to understand the real issues beneath their surface-thinking. Conventional, bigoted and narrow.
1991		(con. 1968) D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 98: They were plastic people, straights, to be easily dismissed.

plastic screw (n.) [screw n.¹ (2c)]

(UK Und.) a security guard employed by the courts and prison services.

2004

(con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 461: Instead of old Brixton screws, the court was now run by Securicor, or ‘plastic screws’ as they were known to the prisoners.

In phrases

plastic out (v.)

(US campus) to assume temporarily an artificial mode of behaviour or personality.

1973		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 3: plastic out [...] The stewardess began to plastic-out as she approached the airplane.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 30: In college slang out is the most productive particle: [...] plastic out ‘assume temporarily an artificial behavior or personality’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

plastic cow (n.) [cow n.¹ (6)]

(US campus) non-dairy creamer.

1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 31: Plastic cow ‘nondairy creamer’ is built on the metonymic connection between cow and cream.

plastic job (n.) [SE plastic (surgery) + job n.² (2)] (orig. US)

1. plastic surgery.

1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Aug. [synd. col.] She’s going to have a plastic job done on her schnozzle.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 23 6: Crocker even had a plastic job done on his face.
1969		N. Spinrad Bug Jack Barron 15: Bleach me white, do a plastic job on my nose.
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 500: I know you and Sicora got plastic jobs.

2. one who has had plastic surgery.

1949

N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 192: A glare that made any man look like a plastic job with a prefabricated expression grafted on.