pasteboard

[ peyst-bawrd, -bohrd ]

noun

1. a stiff, firm board made of sheets of paper pasted or layers of paper pulp pressed together.
2. Older Slang. a card, as a visiting card or a playing card.
3. Older Slang. a ticket, as for the theater.

adjective

1. made of pasteboard.
2. unsubstantial, flimsy, or sham.

pasteboard

/ ˈpeɪstˌbɔːd /

noun

1. 1. a stiff board formed from layers of paper or pulp pasted together, esp as used in bookbinding
   2. ( as modifier )

      a pasteboard book cover

2. slang.
   a card or ticket

adjective

1. flimsy; insubstantial
2. sham; fake

Other Words From

• pasteboardy adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pasteboard¹

First recorded in 1540–50; paste + board

Example Sentences

Before that, he had given a Thanksgiving premiere of Krenek’s Symphony No. 4, a serial work with “about as much savor to it as a pasteboard turkey,” the critic Virgil Thomson quipped.

From New York Times

“We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th.”

From The Verge

And finally his spirit of incompetence means that conservatives get far less out of his administration than they would from a genuine imperial president, a man of iron rather than of pasteboard.

From New York Times

While their white counterparts lived in brick barracks, the black Marines slept in pasteboard huts in a freshly torn pine tree forest, according to the book “African American Voices From Iwo Jima.”

From Washington Post

On a railroad siding off the main tracks, men in linty overalls were loading big pasteboard boxes full of cotton thread onto a freight car.

From Literature