oil painting
Americannoun
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the art or technique of painting with oil colors.
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a painting executed in oil colors.
noun
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a picture painted with oil paints
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the art or process of painting with oil paints
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informal he is not good-looking
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of oil painting
First recorded in 1775–85
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.
At their feet, a regal Airedale terrier named Phoebe lounges, looking as though she belongs in an oil painting.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026
“Every room needs a focal point, an artful place where your eyes can land,” says Los Angeles-based designer Jeff Andrews, who designed his primary bathroom around a vintage abstract oil painting by Aubrey Penny.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 30, 2025
A campaign to buy and exhibit JMW Turner's earliest known oil painting in a museum has raised more than £100,000 in five days.
From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025
The piece was painted in 1972, when Turner was 17, and is the first oil painting ever exhibited by Turner.
From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025
He told me to take up hobbies to distract myself, as he had done—hunting, oil painting, and so on.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
