Etimology
From Middle English paper, borrowed from Anglo-Norman paper, papier, from Latin papȳrus, from Ancient Greek πάπυρος (pápuros). Doublet of papyros and papyrus.
noun
paper (countable and uncountable, plural papers)
A sheet material typically used for writing on or printing on (or as a non-waterproof container), usually made by draining cellulose fibres from a suspension in water.
A newspaper or anything used as such (such as a newsletter or listing magazine).
(uncountable) Wallpaper.
(uncountable) Wrapping paper.
(rock paper scissors) An open hand (a handshape resembling a sheet of paper), that beats rock and loses to scissors. It loses to lizard and beats Spock in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
A written document, generally shorter than a book (white paper, term paper), in particular one written for the Government.
A written document that reports scientific or academic research and is usually subjected to peer review before publication in a scientific journal (as a journal article or the manuscript for one) or in the proceedings of a scientific or academic meeting (such as a conference, workshop, or symposium).
A scholastic essay.
(British, Hong Kong) A set of examination questions to be answered at one session.
(slang) Money.
(finance, uncountable) Any financial assets other than specie.
(New Zealand) A university course. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
A paper packet containing a quantity of items.
A medicinal preparation spread upon paper, intended for external application.
A substance resembling paper secreted by certain invertebrates as protection for their nests and eggs.
(dated) Free passes of admission to a theatre, etc.
(dated, by extension) The people admitted by free passes.
Examples
He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. […]."
“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke […] whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”
However, Anyon Kay remembers a Mr Walton Ainsworth, of Beech House, Rivington, who owned mills in Bolton, being a regular user before the First World War. He used to drive by horse and trap from his mansion to catch the 0906 train to Bolton each day. Before arriving at the station, local newsagent Tom Dutton would hand Mr Ainsworth his morning paper!
There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
This paper surveys the research methods and approaches used in the multidisciplinary field of applied language studies or language education over the last fourty[sic] years. Drawing on insights gained in psycho- and sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and linguistic anthropology with regard to language and culture, it is organized around five major questions that concern language educators.
Why might not a Government annuity, the Principal of which was originally invested in Paper since the Cash suspension in 1797, be constituted the guarantee of Paper Money, emendating from that investiture and suspension, and the Parliament authority transferred to its security, as it has been to its creation, in preference to all others, while Paper continues our general Medium.
[…] three millions and a half specie in its vaults, and nearly six millions invested in paper, loans, discounts, pledges […]
a paper of pins, tacks, opium, etc.
cantharides paper
Related words
synonyms
(medium used in writing): bookfell
hyponyms
abrasive paper
art paper
banana paper
blotting paper
bog paper
brown paper
butcher paper
carbon paper
chattel paper
cigarette paper
commercial paper
construction paper
crêpe paper
daily paper
emery paper
filter paper
funny paper
graph paper
green paper
hang paper
linen paper
liquid paper
litmus paper
loo paper
newspaper
Panama Papers
pen and paper, pen-and-paper
permanent paper
photographic paper
photo paper, photopaper
plain paper
position paper
quadrille paper
rice paper
sandpaper
scientific paper
scratch paper
sheet of paper
silver paper
soda paper
term paper
test paper
tissue paper
toilet paper
touch-paper
tracing paper
treacle paper
white paper
wrapping paper
writing paper
related terms
papier-mâché
papirosa
papyrus
adjective
paper (not comparable)
Made of paper.
Insubstantial (from the weakness of common paper)
Planned (from plans being drawn up on paper)
Having a title that is merely official, or given by courtesy or convention.
Examples
paper bag; paper plane
At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.
paper tiger; paper gangster
Speed limiter law: A paper tiger
It concluded that Australia was “not even a paper tiger, it’s only a paper cat at best”
paper rocket; paper engine
We have to be able to demonstrate that it is not just a paper engine but a real engine
In a background teleconference hosted by SpaceX late last week, an unnamed official dismissed ULA's new booster as a "paper rocket," saying he doubted it would be significantly cheaper than ULA's current stable of launchers.
Ours is not a paper engine... these are real engines that are in production today
"The Ares 1 is a paper rocket that's far off in the future," Musk said. "Falcon 9 is a real rocket, most of which is at Cape Canaveral right now."
a paper baron; a paper lord
verb
paper (third-person singular simple present papers, present participle papering, simple past and past participle papered)
(transitive) To apply paper to.
(transitive) To document; to memorialize.
(transitive) To fill (a theatre or other paid event) with complimentary seats.
(transitive) To submit official papers to (a law court, etc.).
(transitive) To give public notice (typically by displaying posters) that a person is wanted by the police or other authority.
(transitive) To sandpaper.
(transitive) To enfold in paper.
To paste the endpapers and flyleaves at the beginning and end of a book before fitting it into its covers.
(Northeastern US) To cover someone's house with toilet paper. Otherwise known as toilet papering or TPing.
Examples
to paper the hallway walls
After they reached an agreement, their staffs papered it up.
Synonym: paper the house
Later, seat-filling or “papering” services cropped up, with organizations like Audience Extras, Play-by-Play, […]
As powerhouse lawyers shuttled to Cuba to meet clients and papered the federal courts with habeas corpus petitions, Guantanamo's isolation and lack of publicity, once the military's most powerful psychological weapon, was eliminated.
[…] the warning received only six weeks later for poor attendance as proof that the employer was unjustly papering his personnel file in an effort to create a reason for discharge.
Related words
related terms
paper over