Mortar vs. Plaster — What's the Difference?

A short smooth-bore gun for firing shells (technically called bombs) at high angles

Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications.

A cup-shaped receptacle in which ingredients are crushed or ground, used in cooking or pharmacy

A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water, sometimes with fiber added, that hardens to a smooth solid and is used for coating walls and ceilings.

A mixture of lime with cement, sand, and water, used in building to bond bricks or stones.

Plaster of Paris.

Attack or bombard with a mortar

A pastelike mixture applied to a part of the body for healing or cosmetic purposes.

Fix or join using mortar

Chiefly British An adhesive bandage.

A vessel in which substances are crushed or ground with a pestle.

To cover, coat, or repair with plaster.

A machine in which materials are ground and blended or crushed.

To cover or hide with or as if with a coat of plaster

A portable, usually muzzleloading cannon used to fire shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.

To apply a plaster to

A shell fired by such a cannon.

To cover conspicuously, as with things pasted on; overspread

Any of several similar devices, such as one that shoots life lines across a stretch of water.

To affix conspicuously, usually with a paste

A short, usually stationary, muzzleloading cannon used from the 1700s to early 1900s to fire large round shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.

To make smooth by applying a sticky substance

Any of various bonding materials used in masonry, surfacing, and plastering, especially a mixture of cement or lime, sand, and water that hardens in place and is used to bind together bricks or stones.

To make adhere to another surface

To bombard with mortar shells.

To inflict heavy damage or injury on.

To plaster or join with mortar.

To defeat decisively.

(uncountable) A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.

To apply plaster.

(countable) A muzzle-loading, indirect fire weapon with a tube length of 10 to 20 calibers and designed to lob shells at very steep trajectories.

(uncountable) A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes.

(countable) A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.

A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.

(countable) In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.

(uncountable) A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water, sometimes with the addition of fibres, that hardens to a smooth solid and is used for coating walls and ceilings; render, stucco.

(transitive) To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.

(countable) A cast made of plaster of Paris and gauze; a plaster cast.

(transitive) To pound in a mortar.

(uncountable) plaster of Paris.

To fire a mortar (weapon).

(transitive) To cover or coat something with plaster; to render.

To attack (someone or something) using a mortar (weapon).

(transitive) To apply a plaster to.

A strong vessel, commonly in form of an inverted bell, in which substances are pounded or rubbed with a pestle.

(transitive) To smear with some viscous or liquid substance.

A short piece of ordnance, used for throwing bombs, carcasses, shells, etc., at high angles of elevation, as 45°, and even higher; - so named from its resemblance in shape to the utensil above described.

(transitive) To hide or cover up, as if with plaster; to cover thickly.

A building material made by mixing lime, cement, or plaster of Paris, with sand, water, and sometimes other materials; - used in masonry for joining stones, bricks, etc., also for plastering, and in other ways.

To bombard heavily or overwhelmingly; to overwhelm with (weapons) fire.

A chamber lamp or light.

To smooth over.

To plaster or make fast with mortar.

An external application of a consistency harder than ointment, prepared for use by spreading it on linen, leather, silk, or other material. It is adhesive at the ordinary temperature of the body, and is used, according to its composition, to produce a medicinal effect, to bind parts together, etc.; as, a porous plaster; sticking plaster.

A muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range

A composition of lime, water, and sand, with or without hair as a bond, for coating walls, ceilings, and partitions of houses. See Mortar.

Used as a bond in masonry or for covering a wall

Calcined gypsum, or plaster of Paris, especially when ground, as used for making ornaments, figures, moldings, etc.; or calcined gypsum used as a fertilizer.

A bowl-shaped vessel in which substances can be ground and mixed with a pestle

To cover with a plaster, as a wound or sore.

Plaster with mortar;

To overlay or cover with plaster, as the ceilings and walls of a house.

Fig.: To smooth over; to cover or conceal the defects of; to hide, as with a covering of plaster.

A mixture of lime or gypsum with sand and water; hardens into a smooth solid; used to cover walls and ceilings

Any of several gypsum cements; a white powder (a form of calcium sulphate) that forms a paste when mixed with water and hardens into a solid; used in making molds and sculptures and casts for broken limbs

A medical dressing consisting of a soft heated mass of meal or clay that is spread on a cloth and applied to the skin to treat inflamed areas or improve circulation etc.

A hardened surface of plaster (as on a wall or ceiling);

Adhesive tape used in dressing wounds

Cover conspicuously, as by pasting something on;

Affix conspicuously;

Apply a plaster cast to;

Apply a heavy coat to

Coat with plaster;

Dress by covering with a therapeutic substance