Word.ws English Dictionary

paint

/peɪnt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/pɛjɳʈ/

paint noun: a substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.

paint: a substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or...
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

paint (countable and uncountable, plural paints)

  1. A substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.
    • fresh coat of paint
  2. (in plural) A set of containers or blocks of paint of different colors/colours, used for painting pictures.
    • René went back into the kitchen and put a pot of coffee on, got out his paints and started on a new painting. He felt inspired.2007, Jesse Guthrie, Catherine's Addiction, page 116
  3. (slang) The free-throw lane, construed with the.
    • The Nimrods are strong on the outside, but not very good in the paint.
    • Early on it was the Bulldogs who were clearly the aggressors, playing hard in the paint and getting baskets with muscle more than with their shooting prowess.2013 December 12, “JV Dogs suffer first loss, 47-41”, in Martinez (California) News-Gazette
  4. (slang, uncountable) Paintballs.
    • I am running low on paint for my marker.
  5. (slang) Synonym of face card (king, queen, or jack).
    Synonyms:
    face card
  6. (attributive) Graphics drawn using an input device, not scanned or generated.
    • It combines traditional paint capabilities with photograph enhancement features.1993, Emil Ihrig, CorelDRAW! 4 made easy
    • Computer paint software operates similarly but adds features that are delightfully familiar and useful to artists trained in traditional graphics materials.1998, Kit Laybourne, The animation book: a complete guide to animated filmmaking
  7. (uncountable) Makeup.
    • They were as plain and homely as a table-top dancer when the rains had wiped the paint and powder from her face.2012, Caleb Pirtle, Shelly Marshall, Other Voices, Other Towns: The Traveler's Story, →ISBN
  8. (slang, uncountable) Tattoo work.
    Synonyms:
    ink
  9. (dated) Any substance fixed with latex to harden it.
  10. The appearance of an object on a radar screen.
    • Smaller target paints would also be preferred to those displayed on the existing DFTI.1973, International Conference on Radar--Present and Future, 23-25 October, 1973, page 203

Verb

paint (third-person singular simple present paints, present participle painting, simple past and past participle painted)

  1. (transitive) To apply paint to.
    • I painted the bathroom walls light blue, and I painted the ceiling white.
    • The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter I, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To apply in the manner that paint is applied.
  3. (transitive) To apply with a brush in order to treat some body part.
  4. (transitive) To cover (something) with spots of colour, like paint.
    • not painted with the crimson spots of bloodc. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Cuckoo buds of yellow hue / Do paint the meadows with delight.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  5. (transitive) To create (an image) with paints.
    • to paint a portrait or a landscape
  6. (intransitive) To practise the art of painting pictures.
    • I've been painting since I was a young child.
  7. (transitive) To draw an element in a graphical user interface.
    • Sent to a minimized window when the icon's background must be filled before it is painted.1991, Ernest R Tello, Object-oriented Programming for Windows
  8. (figuratively, transitive) To depict or portray.
    • She sued the author of the biography, claiming it painted her as a duplicitous fraud.
    • Disloyal? / The word is too good to paint out her wickedness.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  9. (intransitive) To color one's face by way of beautifying it.
    • Let her paint an inch thick.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  10. (slang, transitive) To detect (something) with radar.
    • "We'll paint the target for the flyboys," the JTAC said.
    • The Albuquerque radar “painted” just one object whenever the light was on, none when it was off.2023, J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience: Evidence Behind Close Encounters, Project Blue Book, and the Search for Answers, Red Wheel/Weiser, →ISBN, page 73
  11. (slang, transitive) To defecate or soil with faeces during anal sex.

Noun (2) capitalized: Paint

Paint (plural Paints)

  1. A paint horse.

Proper noun capitalized: Paint

Paint

  1. A surname

paint meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

paint in Hindi

substance
रंग raṅg, पेंट pẽṭ
to apply paint to
पोतना potnā

paint in Tamil

வண்ணம், சாயம், வண்ணெய் பூசு, வண்ணம் பூசு

paint in Marathi

paint, dye
रंग raṅga

paint in Urdu

substance
رَن٘گ raṅg, پینْٹ penṭ
More languagesFewer languages
paint in Bengali
রং roṅ
paint in Telugu
రంగు raṅgu
paint in Malayalam
ചായം cāyaṁ, അടിക്കുക aṭikkuka
paint in Kannada
ಬಣ್ಣ, ವರ್ಣ, ರಂಗು, ಬರ‍್ಚಣೆ
paint in Gujarati
રંગવું raṅgvũ
paint in Sanskrit
वर्णयति varṇayati, लिङ्ग् liṅg, अञ्जना añjanā, निर्मा nirmā
paint in Assamese
চিত sit
paint in Pashto
رنګ rang
paint in Arabic
دِهَان dihān, لَوَّنَ lawwana
paint in Malay
cat
paint in Indonesian
cat, mencat
paint in Thai
สี sǐi, วาด wâat, ทา taa
paint in Vietnamese
nước sơn, sơn
paint in Myanmar
ဆေး hce:

Examples of paint in a sentence

  • Isaiah Thomas is very clever, very crafty getting to the paint and finishing in the paint.2016 April 20, “Hawks not giving Celtics anything in the paint”, in Comcast SportsNet New England:
  • In Game 3, they re-focused on protecting the paint and transition defense.2016 May 22, “Renewed defensive strategy has Raptors alive in conference finals”, in USA TODAY:
  • If using a paint package, you must specify the color before you draw the line or shape.2001, Maureen Sprankle, Problem Solving for Information Processing:
  • VVhether the Charmer ſinner it, or ſaint it, / VVhen Folly grovvs romantic, vve muſt paint it.1735, Alexander Pope, “Epistle 2”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC...

All 40 example sentences with paint

Synonyms of paint

Forms of paint

Noun
pluralpaints
pluralPaints
Verb
third-person singular presentpaints
present participlepainting
past participlepainted
pastpainted

Past tense of paint: painted

Plural of paint: paints

Origin of paint

From Middle English peynten, from Old French peintier, paincter, itself from paint, the past participle of paindre, from Latin pingō (“to paint”) (perfect passive participle pictus). Displaced native Old English tēafor (“paint”), *tīefran (“to paint”); and Old English mētan (“to paint”) and mǣlan (“to paint, mark with colour”).

Words formed from paint

Phrases with paint

52 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with paint

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about paint

What does paint mean?
Paint means a substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.
What is paint in Hindi?
Paint in Hindi is रंग (raṅg), पेंट (pẽṭ), पोतना (potnā). See Paint meaning in Hindi.
How do you use paint in a sentence?
Isaiah Thomas is very clever, very crafty getting to the paint and finishing in the paint.
What part of speech is paint?
Paint can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce paint?
Paint is pronounced /peɪnt/.
What is the plural of paint?
The plural of paint is paints.

Words near paint in the dictionary

  1. painstick
  2. painsticks
  3. painsweat
  4. Painswick
  5. painsworthy
  6. paint
  7. paint a rosy picture
  8. paint and sip
  9. paint and sips
  10. paint box
  11. paint boxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paint (page history and authors); Paint (page history and authors); paint (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); रंग (Marathi) (page history and authors); അടിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); paint (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); રંગવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); अञ्जना (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); চিত (Assamese) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-paint.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-paint.wav.

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