varnish - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


Article Images

From Middle English vernisch, vernish, from Old French vernis, from Medieval Latin vernix, veronix, from Byzantine Greek Βερενίκη (Bereníkē, “Berenice”), a town in Cyrenaica, now called Benghazi.

varnish (countable and uncountable, plural varnishes)

  1. A type of paint with a solvent that evaporates to leave a hard, transparent, glossy film.
  2. Anything resembling such a paint; glossy appearance.
  3. (by extension) A deceptively showy appearance.
  4. (rail transport, US, informal, dated) a passenger train, probably derived from the varnished passenger cars used at one time.

    • 1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co.:

      Every transcontinental but two settled on the simple articulated for freight service, and all of them coupled their varnish to the 4-8-4.

transparent paint

Translations to be checked

varnish (third-person singular simple present varnishes, present participle varnishing, simple past and past participle varnished)

  1. (intransitive) To apply varnish.
  2. (transitive) To cover up with varnish.
  3. (transitive) To make something superficially or deceptively attractive

    varnish the report

  4. (transitive) To gloss over a defect.

    • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:

      [...] Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite at home.

to apply varnish

to cover up with varnish

to gloss over a defect

Translations to be checked

Borrowed from English varnish.

varnish f (genitive singular varnish, plural varnishyn)

  1. varnish