'put a plaster on' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is usually used to refer to the action of placing a bandage, or adhesive strip, on a wound to protect it, but can also be used more generally to refer to offering comfort or protection in a difficult situation. For example: "She put a plaster on her friend's broken heart by giving her words of comfort."
Put a plaster on his nose and it could have been Robbie Fowler 10 years ago.
In research they are planning to publish later this year, academics Heather Piper, John Powell and Hannah Smith describe how some child carers are reluctant even to put a plaster on a child's scraped knee.
Given recent U-turns on promises made by the Leave campaign, their commitment to maintain EU science funding until 2020 is akin to offering to put a plaster on an amputated leg.
Never put a plaster on it because that will prevent it from healing.
"However, this move is akin to putting a plaster on the wall of a dam that is about to burst".
The move has been described by obesity researcher Zoe Harcombe as "useful as putting a plaster on a severed artery".
The collective failure to re-imagine another pathway results in focusing our intellectual power on trying to prop up the existing system, even though this is akin to putting a plaster on a gaping wound.
But in the face of the slow-moving juggernaut of global warming, it's difficult not to regard these measures, worthy as they are, as akin to putting a plaster on a gunshot wound.
It tries to explode health and safety myths: putting a plaster on a child's cut, hanging up flower baskets or running pancake races are not necessarily illegal as long as people are responsible, it says.
What is cast into doubt is the process of normal nurturing - the way adults are with children". Comforting a child when they're upset, putting a plaster on them, changing their wet pants - all these everyday ways in which adults care for young children are now seen as suspect.
"I think that a lot of productions bring the police in at the last minute," says Wainwright. "Lisa has been asked to do that loads of times on various shows and she says you can't do anything, it's like putting a plaster on a broken leg.
