paper

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A material made of cellulose pulp, derived mainly from wood, rags, and certain grasses, processed into flexible sheets or rolls by deposit from an aqueous suspension, and used chiefly for writing, printing, drawing, wrapping, and covering walls.
2. n. A single sheet of this material.
3. n. One or more sheets of paper bearing writing or printing, especially:
4. n. A formal written composition intended to be published, presented, or read aloud; a scholarly essay or treatise.
5. n. A piece of written work for school; a report or theme.
6. n. An official document, especially one establishing the identity of the bearer. Often used in the plural.
7. n. A collection of letters, diaries, and other writings, especially by one person: the Madison papers.
8. n. Commercial documents that represent value and can be transferred from owner to owner; negotiable instruments considered as a group: "billions more invested in American stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, and other paper” ( Christian Science Monitor).
9. n. A newspaper.
10. n. Wallpaper.
11. n. A wrapper made of paper, often with its contents: a paper of pins.
12. n. Slang A free pass to a theater.
13. n. Slang The audience admitted with free passes.
14. v. To cover, wrap, or line with paper.
15. v. To cover with wallpaper.
16. v. To supply with paper.
17. v. Slang To issue free passes for (a theater, for example).
18. v. To construct (something) in haste and with little forethought: papered together a new coalition of political convenience.
19. adj. Made of paper.
20. adj. Resembling paper, as in thinness or flimsiness.
21. adj. Of or relating to clerical work: paper duties.
22. adj. Existing only in printed or written form: paper profits; a paper corporation.
23. adj. Planned but not realized; theoretical.
24. paper over To put or keep out of sight; conceal: paper over a deficit with accounting gimmicks.
25. paper over To downplay or gloss over (differences, for example), especially in order to maintain a nominal, apparent, or temporary unity.
26. idiom. in paper With a paperback binding; as a paperback.
27. idiom. on paper In writing or print.
28. idiom. on paper In theory, as opposed to actual performance or fact: It is a good team on paper, but its members play poorly together.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A material consisting of a compacted web felting of vegetable fibers, commonly in the form of thin, flexible sheet: used in writing, for printing, and for various other purposes. The fibers most used for writing-papers are those of linen and cotton rags, and for printing-papers those of straw, wood, paper-cuttings or paper-waste, and selected grasses. These fibers are prepared by grinding, bleaching, beating, and boiling until they are reduced to a fluid pulp, in which state they readily mat or felt together when freed from, the water in which they are suspended. More than 400 varieties of fibers usable for this purpose are known; all have curling filaments that readily interlace with one another. Paper was formerly made wholly by hand, pulp from the vat being dipped up in a mold, from which the water drains away, leaving a felted sheet, which is then pressed and dried. Some fine grades of writing-, printing-, and drawing-papers are still made in this way, but the larger part of the paper, for what-ever purpose used, is now made by machinery. for some purpose, as newspapers-printing, the sheet is made in continuous webs of very great length, and is printed from the uncut roll. Paper is made in a great variety of qualities, ranging from heavy drawing-board to the lightest tissue-paper, and in every color and shade. It is cut for the trade by accurate machines in a number of sizes, the sheets varying somewhat according to fashion or special requirements. (See list of sizes given below.) Paper is also molded from the pulp into cartridge-cases, embossed sheets for wall-decoration, pails, boxes, and other vessels, boats, barrels. Car-wheels, domes for observatories, bricks, building materials, etc., in all of which lightness is combined with strength. From the sheet it is transformed by various processes and operations into roofing material, carpets, bags, etc. The principal varieties of ordinary paper are—writing-and printing-papers, coarse papers for wrapping and other purposes, and blotting-and filtering-papers; while some useful kinds are the result of manipulations subsequent to the paper-marker's work, as lithographic paper, tracing-paper, etc. The ordinary counts of paper are the quire of twenty-four sheets, the ream of twenty quires (of which two are inferior to the other eighteen), and the bundle of two reamas.
2. n. A piece, leaf, or sheet of this material.
3. n. Any written or printed document or instrument, as a note, receipt, bill, invoice, bond, memorial, deed, etc.: specifically, in the plural letters, notes, memoranda, etc.: as, the private papers of Washington.
4. n. A printed sheet of news; a newspaper; a journal.
5. n. An essay or article; a dissertation on a special topic.
6. n. Negotiable evidences of indebtedness, such as promissory notes, bills of exchange, etc.: used collectively: as, commercial paper; negotiable paper.
7. n. The written or printed questions, collectively, set for an examination.
8. n. Hangings of paper, printed, stamped, or plain; paper for covering the walls of interiors. See paper-hangings and wall-paper.
9. n. Free passes of admission to a place of entertainment; also, the persons admitted by such passes: as, the house was filled with paper.
10. n. A very thin, soft paper, of a faint yellowish or brownish tint, prepared from the bark of the bamboo. It is much used for fine impressions from wood-engravings, and occasionally for proofs from steel-plate engravings, etc.
11. n. In photography, any paper that has not a glossy surface, such as that of albuminized paper.
12. Made of paper; consisting of paper, in any sense: as, a paper box; paper currency.
13. Appearing merely in certain written or printed statements, and not existing in reality or in tangible form: as, a paper army.
14. To line or cover with paper, or apply paper to in any way; also, to cover with paper-hangings.
15. To fold or inclose in paper.
16. In book-binding, to paste the end-papers and fly-leaves at the beginning and end of (a volume), before fitting it in its covers.
17. To treat in any way by means of paper; perform any operation on, such as some kinds of polishing, in which paper enters as a material or medium; sandpaper, or smooth by means of sandpaper.
18. To fill, as a theater or other place of amusement, with all audience mostly admitted by paper—that is, by free passes; fill with non-paying spectators: as, the house was papered nightly during his engagement.
19. To register; note or set down on paper.
20. n. A sheet or piece of paper used to wrap up and carry small articles: as, a paper of nuts, a paper of soap.
21. n. A folded paper with needles or pins stuck through it in rows: as, a paper of pins, a paper of needles.
22. n. Sometimes applied to papier-mâché and other manufactured articles which are made with paper-pulp.
23. n. plural Credentials.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sheet material used for writing on or printing on (or as a non-waterproof container), usually made by draining cellulose fibres from a suspension in water.
2. n. A newspaper or anything used as such (such as a newsletter or listing magazine).
3. n. uncountable Wallpaper.
4. n. uncountable Wrapping paper.
5. n. A written document, generally shorter than a book (white paper, term paper), in particular one written for the Government.
6. n. A written document that reports scientific or academic research and is usually subjected to peer review before publication in a scientific journal or in the proceedings of a scientific or academic meeting (such as a conference, a workshop or a symposium).
7. n. slang money.
8. n. New Zealand A university course.
9. adj. Made of paper.
10. adj. Insubstantial.
11. v. transitive To apply paper to.
12. v. transitive To document; to memorialize.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A substance in the form of thin sheets or leaves intended to be written or printed on, or to be used in wrapping. It is made of rags, straw, bark, wood, or other fibrous material, which is first reduced to pulp, then molded, pressed, and dried.
2. n. A sheet, leaf, or piece of such substance.
3. n. A printed or written instrument; a document, essay, or the like; a writing.
4. n. A printed sheet appearing periodically; a newspaper; a journal.
5. n. Negotiable evidences of indebtedness; notes; bills of exchange, and the like.
6. n. Decorated hangings or coverings for walls, made of paper. See Paper hangings, below.
7. n. A paper containing (usually) a definite quantity
8. n. A medicinal preparation spread upon paper, intended for external application.
9. n. Documents establishing a person's identity, or status, or attesting to some right, such as the right to drive a vehicle.
10. adj. Of or pertaining to paper; made of paper; resembling paper.
11. adj. Existing only on paper; unsubstantial.
12. v. To cover or line with paper, especially with wallpaper; to furnish with paper hangings; to wallpaper.
13. v. To fold or inclose in paper.
14. v. obsolete To put on paper; to make a memorandum of.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a business firm that publishes newspapers
2. n. a daily or weekly publication on folded sheets; contains news and articles and advertisements
3. n. an essay (especially one written as an assignment)
4. n. the physical object that is the product of a newspaper publisher
5. v. cover with paper
6. v. cover with wallpaper
7. n. a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses
8. n. a medium for written communication
9. n. a scholarly article describing the results of observations or stating hypotheses