painted
Americanadjective
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reproduced or represented in paint.
a painted image.
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covered with a coating of paint.
a painted chair.
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unreal; artificial; feigned.
a painted life.
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exaggerated or misrepresented.
a luridly painted version of what really happened.
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covered with makeup, especially to excess.
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brightly colored or multicolored (used in combinations).
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of painted
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at paint, -ed 2
Explanation
Anything that's painted is either covered or decorated with paint. Brightly painted walls can cheer up a room that would otherwise be dark and dull. Your colorfully painted kitchen chairs are coated with different shades of paint, and your painted fingernails might be dabbed with shiny silver nail polish. Several types of animals are also painted because they have bright or varied stripes of color on their bodies — like painted turtles' colorful shells and painted storks' bright feathers. Painted comes from paint and its Latin root, pingere, "to paint, 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.
Painted after Artemisia returned to Rome after several years in Florence, the roughly life-size, seated figure is folded elegantly into the rectangle of the canvas.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
Appeared in the March 21, 2026, print edition as 'A Powerfully Painted Pine'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
The Cahuilla people believe they originated among the red walls and leaning stone outcroppings of the Painted Canyon, and burial grounds throughout the site attest to its sacred place in their culture.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2025
Painted at the end of a rainbow in the 1831 masterpiece Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, Leaden Hall has been empty since 2017, when the school using it merged with another.
From BBC • Oct. 24, 2025
Painted grape leaves and tiny white lights decorated the bricks around the door.
From "Out of My Mind" by Sharon M. Draper
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.
