Definition of "pasteboard"

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick

He handed Larry two slips of pasteboard, theater tickets, as was evident at first glance.

1912, Howard Roger Garis, Larry Dexter and the Stolen Boy

To many, a railway ticket is but an uninteresting bit of pasteboard, which must be purchased before a journey is undertaken, and once obtained, may be stowed away in a convenient pocket and forgotten, until a watchful railway official requests its production.

1939 November, R. S. Tayler, “A Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 336

“We shall only have to leave our pasteboards, Arthur.” He used the word ‘pasteboards,’ having heard it from some of the ingenuous youth of the nobility about town, and as a modern phrase suited to Pen’s tender years.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 37, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850

[…] he no sooner learnt that the British officer in command had sent in his pasteboard, than he instantly returned the visit […]

1860, William Johnson Neale, Paul Periwinkle: Or, The Pressgang, page 18

Peter called on the Pierces, only to find them out, and as no notice was taken of his pasteboard, he drew his own inference, and did not repeat the visit.

1894, Paul Leicester Ford, The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him, page 47

A poor, pasteboard story. The conventional, unattractive heroine is recovering from an illness in Rome. She is discontented and sorry for herself because her planned career as a sports mistress has now to be abandoned.

1955, The Junior Bookshelf, volume 19, page 241