noun
-
the art or process of applying paints to a surface such as canvas, to make a picture or other artistic composition
-
a composition or picture made in this way
-
the act of applying paint to a surface with a brush
Etymology
Origin of painting
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at paint, -ing 1
Explanation
If you want to study painting, go to art school. If that doesn’t work out, maybe you can get a job painting houses. Then you can paint a house purple or paint a picture, which is called a painting. Slapping a coat of paint on your apartment walls is painting, but so is creating a masterpiece like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or maybe even C.M. Coolidge’s “Dogs Playing Poker.” The picture that results from your painting experiments is also called a painting. The Latin root of painting, pingere, means "to paint," but also "to stain, embroider, or tattoo."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The tweens came down from Napa, Calif., to showcase their acrylic comic-strip painting featuring Mexican soccer player Alexis Vega, who channels his Mesoamerican ancestors when scoring the victory goal.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
He painted The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, which still hangs in St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, and is the only painting Caravaggio ever signed.
From Slate • Jun. 6, 2026
Made by artists from the Royal Bureau of Painting, such images documented gatherings of high government officials and were couched in the visual language of earlier Chinese landscape painting.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
The film derives its title from the girl’s interest in “Little Irène,” a painting by influential French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2026
He flew straight into a painting of a glum man on a glummer horse, put a claw through the man’s nose, and dropped to the windowsill, peeping in pain and fear.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
