Word.ws English Dictionary

dawber

dawber is the archaic form of dauber.

Meaning of dauber

Noun

dauber (plural daubers)

  1. (derogatory) One who, or that which, daubs; especially, a coarse, unskillful painter.
    • After he had exerted all his powers to produce a masterpiece of art, the canons, upon viewing the picture, pronounced it a contemptible performance, and the artist a miserable dauber; and Vandyck could hardly obtain payment for his work.1853, Shearjashub Spooner, Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3), page 140
  2. (copperplate printing) A pad or ball of rags, covered with canvas, for inking plates.
    Synonyms:
    dabber, inkball
  3. A type of thick marker pen used to mark a bingo card.
    • Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dauber or a betting pencil?2007, “Fluorescent Adolescent”, in Favourite Worst Nightmare, performed by Arctic Monkeys
    Synonyms:
    dabber, dobber
  4. (archaic) A low and gross flatterer.
  5. The mud wasp; the mud dauber.

See all 6 meanings of dauber

Forms of dawber

pluraldawbers

Questions about dawber

What is dawber the archaic form of?
Dawber is the archaic form of dauber.

Words near dawber in the dictionary

  1. Dawan
  2. Dawanian
  3. dawas
  4. dawb
  5. dawbed
  6. dawber
  7. dawbers
  8. dawbing
  9. dawbings
  10. dawbs
  11. dawcock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dawber (page history and authors); dauber (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dawber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dawber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.