daub
Americanverb (used with object)
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daubs,
present (3rd person singular)
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daubed,
past participle, past
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daubing
present participle
-
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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daubs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
daubed,
past participle, past
-
daubing
present participle
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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daubsimple
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daubssimple
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have daubedperfect
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has daubedperfect
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am daubingprogressive
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are daubingprogressive
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is daubingprogressive
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have been daubingperfect progressive
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has been daubingperfect progressive
Past
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daubedsimple
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had daubedperfect
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was daubingprogressive
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were daubingprogressive
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had been daubingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Explanation
Whenever you smear something on a surface, you are daubing. Abstract Expressionists may have been able to daub a canvas with paint and sell it for millions, but you probably wouldn’t be so lucky. Daub can be used as a verb or as a noun, and is derived from the Old French debaur which comes from the Latin dealbare “to whiten.” It is also used to describe the process of covering a surface with an adhesive substance such as plaster, mud or grease. However, in its noun form, it means a smear of something. When you are ordering "a bagel with a smear," you could impress the guy at the deli by asking for "a daub" instead.
Vocabulary lists containing daub
Stroke of Genius: Words About Painting
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The Odyssey
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"Daedalus and Icarus"
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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.
See Examples For:
He is a pliant enough actor to daub each portrait with just enough psychological color.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026
Celebrants daub each other with vividly colored powders.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 15, 2022
Scully finds analogues in his home place for larger themes from art history, so in his 2015 “Doric Blue and Blue,” the grid resolves into the pure brushstroke, the squarish daub of Cézanne.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
In the absence of costumes or conspicuous floats, young people used their imaginations to daub eye-catching slogans on protest signs for the youth march.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2021
It is a warm winter day, as warm as a spring day in England, and around the fort, men are outside, working on everything from repairing wattle and daub walls to shucking corn.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
The painter adds, as grace notes, eight daubs of red, two no larger than a speck, to the prevailing gray.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
After another row or two, Daignault’s canvases become increasingly abstract, finally dissolving into blurred daubs of color against black fields.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2024
Like all besotted lovers, they seem to exist in a private realm, one that the French-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy illuminates with cozy framing, daubs of strong colors and a bold, graphic sensibility.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
That incident aside, the only minor troubles Cathala can remember from his 28 years as an elected official are a few “very rare” trash fires and occasional daubs of graffiti.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2023
He was the painters idea of a man, simply daubs of paint, nothing more.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
Martine Letterie, one of the campaign's organisers, said concentration camps were increasingly the target of vandalism, including far-right imagery daubed on sites.
From Barron's ● Mar. 19, 2026
On the front steps, insults daubed in spray paint were directed at both Mayor Karen Bass and President Trump.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
The statue was also daubed with graffiti during Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in 2020, for which an 18-year-old protester was given a £200 fine and told to pay £1,200 in compensation.
From BBC ● May 6, 2025
With the campaign heading into the homestretch, Gluesenkamp Perez recently embarked on a RV tour of the 3rd Congressional District, down twisting two-lane roads, past farmland and forests daubed with red, yellow and orange.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2024
She mended our clothes torn by the barbed-wire fences, daubed our cuts and scrapes with iodine, and shook her head.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
In May, it claimed responsibility for the daubing of a US military plane in Ireland.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2025
Several times he said that he had finished, but after pausing a few seconds, he would return to the canvas, daubing and smudging and spilling again.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2022
Bright paintings adorn many buildings in the neigbourhood and workers are busy daubing steps and stone walls in cheerful hues of yellow and orange.
From Reuters ● Nov. 10, 2021
In the Republic of Ireland police are investigating the daubing of black paint on a monument to Christopher Columbus in Galway - a gift from the city of Genoa.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 10, 2020
I wasn’t sure how he was going to get his boots back on, even after daubing the worst of the blisters with a paste made of baking soda.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
