Dictionary

plaster saint en · NOUN

Meanings

1. Someone who makes a show of being benevolent and morally upright, often in a hypocritical way.
2. A model of correct behavior.
   • We aren’t no thin red ’eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints; 1892, Rudyard Kipling, Tommy:
   • Of course, I don’t want to make [prison] officers into plaster saints; and they themselves would not want such an absurd depiction. 2017, Theodore Dalrymple, The Knife Went In:

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