daub
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cover or coat with soft, adhesive matter, as plaster or mud.
to daub a canvas with paint; to daub stone walls with mud.
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to spread (plaster, mud, etc.) on or over something.
to daub plaster on a brick wall.
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to smear, soil, or defile.
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to apply, as paint or colors, unskillfully.
verb (used without object)
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to daub something.
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to paint unskillfully.
noun
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material, especially of an inferior kind, for daubing walls.
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something daubed on.
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an act of daubing.
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a crude, inartistic painting.
verb
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(tr) to smear or spread (paint, mud, etc), esp carelessly
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(tr) to cover or coat (with paint, plaster, etc) carelessly
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to paint (a picture) clumsily or badly
noun
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an unskilful or crude painting
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something daubed on, esp as a wall covering See also wattle and daub
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a smear (of paint, mud, etc)
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the act of daubing
Other Word Forms
- dauber noun
- daubingly adverb
- dauby adjective
- undaubed adjective
Etymology
Origin of daub
1275–1325; (v.) Middle English dauben < Anglo-French, Old French dauber to whiten, paint < Latin dealbāre, equivalent to de-, prevocalic variant of dē- de- + albāre to whiten, derivative of albus white; (noun) late Middle English, derivative of the v.
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.
They are generally pleasant if bland landscapes, rendered in small, precise daubs of thick paint, and they begin to appear by the mid-1870s.
The mural of the England defender was unveiled near Anfield after Liverpool became European champions in 2019, and was also vandalised earlier this year, with the word 'Rat' daubed on it.
From BBC
The painter adds, as grace notes, eight daubs of red, two no larger than a speck, to the prevailing gray.
The series famously concluded with Jimmy Corkhill, played by the late Dean Sullivan, daubing a letter "d" on to the sign, leaving it as "Brookside Closed" before driving out of the cul-de-sac.
From BBC
The series famously concluded with Jimmy Corkhill, played by the late Dean Sullivan, daubing a "d" on to the sign, leaving it as "Brookside Closed" before driving out of the cul-de-sac.
From BBC
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.
