paste
Americannoun
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pastes
plural
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a mixture of flour and water, often with starch or the like, used for causing paper or other material to adhere to something.
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any soft, smooth, and plastic material or preparation.
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dough, especially when prepared with shortening, as for making pie crust and other pastry.
puff paste.
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any of various semisoft fruit confections of pliable consistency.
almond paste; guava paste.
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a preparation of fish, tomatoes, or other food reduced to a smooth, soft mass, as for a relish or for seasoning.
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a mixture of clay, water, etc., for making pottery or porcelain.
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Jewelry.
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a brilliant, heavy glass, as strass, used for making artificial gems.
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an artificial gem of this material.
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Slang. a hard smack, blow, or punch, especially on the face.
verb (used with object)
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pastes,
present (3rd person singular)
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pasted,
past participle, past
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pasting
present participle
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to fasten or stick with paste or the like.
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to cover with something applied by means of paste.
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Slang. to hit (a person) hard, especially on the face.
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Computers. to insert (copied text, images, etc.) into a file.
verb (used without object)
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pastes,
present (3rd person singular)
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pasted,
past participle, past
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pasting
present participle
noun
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a mixture or material of a soft or malleable consistency, such as toothpaste
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an adhesive made from water and flour or starch, used esp for joining pieces of paper
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a preparation of food, such as meat, that has been powdered to a creamy mass, for spreading on bread, crackers, etc
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any of various sweet doughy confections
almond paste
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dough, esp when prepared with shortening, as for making pastry
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Also called: strass. a hard shiny glass used for making imitation gems
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an imitation gem made of this glass
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the combined ingredients of porcelain See also hard paste soft paste
verb
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to attach by or as if by using paste
he pasted posters onto the wall
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(usually foll by with) to cover (a surface) with paper, usually attached with an adhesive
he pasted the wall with posters
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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semipastenoun
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prepasteverb (used with object)
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repasteverb (used with object)
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unpasteverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pastesimple
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pastessimple
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have pastedperfect
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has pastedperfect
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am pastingprogressive
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are pastingprogressive
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is pastingprogressive
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have been pastingperfect progressive
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has been pastingperfect progressive
Past
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pastedsimple
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had pastedperfect
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was pastingprogressive
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were pastingprogressive
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had been pastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of paste
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin pasta dough < Greek pastá barley porridge, noun use of neuter plural of pastós, verbid of pássein to strew, sprinkle; a pasta was originally a kind of gruel sprinkled with salt; paste ( defs. 9, 12 ) probably by association with baste 3
Explanation
Paste is like glue. If you paste something, you stick it onto something else. You might copy and paste info from one document to another on your computer, or literally paste posters all over town. Just don’t use tomato paste. Some foods take the form of a paste, like cake frosting or pâté. There's also the kind of paste you can use for gluing paper — like wallpaper paste, for example. Costume jewelry, which resembles gemstones but is relatively inexpensive, is made from another, harder kind of paste. To paste something is to stick it together, to patch it, or to cover it with paper. The Late Latin root is pasta, or "dough."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It means Dilworth at the Football Supporters Association is cautious about clubs simply seeking to "copy and paste from the men's game".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
To make the creamy pistachio-tahini paste, combine ¼ cup of pistachio butter with a quarter-teaspoon of tahini.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Unfortunately, anyone can paste a USB-like graphic on a product listing online, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
During our Zoom, with the background carefully faded behind her wavy blond bob, she promises that she doesn’t just copy and paste her subjects and settings from what sells.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Her only worry about the salt was that her sweaty hands were going to turn it to paste.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
"It's our most traditional dish here in Pachuca. If you don't have much time, there's always a pastes store around the corner," Hernandez says.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
And Thomas just copies and pastes that stuff right into his dissent.
From Slate ● May 15, 2026
Mr. Blum said he uses ChatGPT and Claude in a limited way: He pastes in drafts with the prompt “edit for grammar, usage and clarity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
Leftover curry pastes, chipotles in adobo, gochujang-honey glazes, romesco, tamarind chutney—all of them freeze beautifully.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2025
Calixte asked for nothing at all, though Lazlo knew she was procuring, with Tzara’s assistance, an array of resins with which to concoct sticking pastes to aid in her climbing.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
"It was pasted on a chest that was floating," said Rimal, 44.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
It features the base of an old sewing machine pasted over with a cigar box wrapper and the oft-reoccurring theme of a moon, sun and stars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Stern sent copy and pasted text of an ABC News article dated 2 October 2009 to Epstein titled Duchess of Debt?
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
She stepped into the bathroom, rubbed some adhesive across her face, pasted on the fake beard, and colored her hair with gray paint she had bought at a costume shop.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2025
Irian pasted a scrap of sailcloth over the boat’s name.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
“I was copying and pasting from ChatGPT,” said Vo, who lives in San Francisco.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
A pasting at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain might have coloured their last European campaign but Inter got to that final by seeing off Bayern Munich and Barcelona in epic knockout ties.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
There is hope in senior circles that the review, together with big infrastructure plans, can be used to create a summer of good news, after many months of taking a pasting.
From BBC ● May 24, 2025
Yet, he’s pathetic at maintaining order, pasting a misspelled sign on his police car that reads: Your being manipulated.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2025
I printed out the e-mail, and I’m pasting it below:
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
