Word.ws English Dictionary

varnishing

varnishing is the present participle and gerund 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

Noun

varnishing (plural varnishings)

  1. An application of varnish.
    • The old wooden table was given regular varnishings.

Forms of varnishing

pluralvarnishings

Phrases with varnishing

Questions about varnishing

What does varnishing mean?
Varnishing means an application of varnish.
What is varnishing the present participle and gerund of?
Varnishing is the present participle and gerund of varnish.
What part of speech is varnishing?
Varnishing is a noun.
What is the plural of varnishing?
The plural of varnishing is varnishings.

Words near varnishing in the dictionary

  1. varnisher
  2. varnishers
  3. varnishes
  4. varnishest
  5. varnisheth
  6. varnishing
  7. varnishing day
  8. varnishing days
  9. varnishings
  10. varnishleaf
  11. varnishless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: varnishing (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: “varnishing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/varnishing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.