nail polish

American

noun

a polish of quick-drying lacquer, either clear or colored, used to paint the fingernails or toenails.

nail polish British

noun

a quick-drying lacquer applied to colour the nails or make them shiny or esp both

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

nail polishes

plural

Etymology

Origin of nail polish

First recorded in 1905–10

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:

nail polish

"We're taking the fun out of nails... Anyone should be able to wear what they like - nail polish or bare nails," she says.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

She said she recognised her mother's from her red nail polish.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

Earlier attempts to solve this problem involved adding conductive materials such as carbon nanotubes or metallic particles to nail polish.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2026

That includes Anew Material, a company making nail polish that it says is free of petrochemicals and microplastics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026

Today was the day to order more shades of red nail polish.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023