Word.ws English Dictionary

varnished

varnished is the simple past and past participle of varnish.

Meaning of varnish

Verb

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

See all 8 meanings of varnish

Adjective

varnished

  1. coated or decorated with varnish

Words formed from varnished

Questions about varnished

What does varnished mean?
Varnished means coated or decorated with varnish.
What is varnished the simple past and past participle of?
Varnished is the simple past and past participle of varnish.
What part of speech is varnished?
Varnished is an adjective.

Words near varnished in the dictionary

  1. varnish tree
  2. varnish trees
  3. varnish-tree
  4. varnish-trees
  5. varnishable
  6. varnished
  7. varnisher
  8. varnishers
  9. varnishes
  10. varnishest
  11. varnisheth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: varnished (page history and authors); varnish (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: “varnished.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/varnished. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.