bedaub

[bih-dawb]

verb (used with object)

1. to smear all over; besmear; soil.

2. to ornament gaudily or excessively.

bedaub

/ bɪˈdɔːb /

verb

1. to smear all over with something thick, sticky, or dirty

2. to ornament in a gaudy or vulgar fashion

Other Word Forms

• unbedaubed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bedaub¹

First recorded in 1545–55; be- + daub

Example Sentences

So Meg wrestled alone with the refractory sweetmeats all that hot summer day, and at five o’clock sat down in her topsy-turvey kitchen, wrung her bedaubed hands, lifted up her voice and wept.

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Paying test subjects for the trouble and risk of swallowing, being injected with or bedaubed with drugs or other medical substances is accepted practice worldwide.

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Our pessimist frauds and the Ibsensite pack Will groan as they thickly bedaub it in black.

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Chiefs harangued their yelling followers, braves bedaubed themselves with war-paint, smeared themselves with grease, hung feathers in their scalp-locks, and whooped and stamped till they had wrought themselves into a delirium of valor.

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To plaster over; to cover or smear thickly; to bedaub.

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