VARNISHED • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Varnished

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/vˈɑrnɪʃt/ Listen

verb

Varnish v. t. (past & past part. varnished; pres. part. varnishing)

To lay varnish on; to cover with a liquid which produces, when dry, a hard, glossy surface; as, to varnish a table; to varnish a painting.

To cover or conceal with something that gives a fair appearance; to give a fair coloring to by words; to gloss over; to palliate; as, to varnish guilt. "Beauty doth varnish age." "Close ambition, varnished o'er with zeal." "Cato's voice was ne'er employed To clear the guilty and to varnish crimes."

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Etymology of 'Varnished'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Varnished" Quotes from Famous Books

... John the Baptist boys gazing up into the face of the Christ—child as it lay in its mother's arms. He finished the "Confession" hurriedly—Maggie's face faded from his view; he saw now only a garden of hats and heads, the bright varnished colour of the church ...

— The Captives • Hugh Walpole

... in the legs of a country-boy, and shows itself in uneasiness in the toes, which get tired of boots, and want to come out and touch the soil just as soon as the sun has warmed it a little. The country-boy goes barefoot just as naturally as the trees burst their buds, which were packed and varnished over in the fall to keep the water and the frost out. Perhaps the boy has been out digging into the maple-trees with his jack-knife; at any rate, he is pretty sure to announce the discovery as he comes running into the house in a great ...

— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... him coldly from head to foot. Arnold was wearing his only and ordinary overcoat, but his varnished shoes and white ...

— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... and arranged by Miss Dimpleton, and placed on slight rods of black iron, draperied the windows; and the bed was covered with a quilt of the same make and material. Two glass-fronted cupboards, painted white and varnished, were placed each side of the recess; no doubt containing the household utensils—the portable stove, the broom, etc., etc.; for none of these necessaries destroyed the harmonious arrangement of ...

— The Mysteries of Paris V2 • Eugene Sue

... of Scotch cottages about a century ago, the greater part of them had been long deserted; and their fallen roofs, blackened gables, and ruinous walls, showed Desolation's triumph over Poverty. On some huts the rafters, varnished with soot, were still standing, in whole or in part, like skeletons, and a few, wholly or partially covered with thatch, seemed still inhabited, though scarce habitable; for the smoke of the peat-fires, which prepared the humble meal of the indwellers, stole ...

— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott

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