oil painting
Americannoun
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oil paintings
plural
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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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
One of the stolen artworks is a vertical oil painting on canvas dating back to around 1910 depicting French actress Gabrielle Colonna-Romano.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
And yet the exhibition proper opens with a work that speaks to the artist’s commitment to America: his 1852 oil painting “The Natural Bridge, Virginia.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Also new this summer is a large 2023 oil painting of King Charles III by Jonathan Yeo.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
One exhibition space features a rarely shown oil painting which Central Library architect Bertram Goodhue commissioned to convince the library administration and board of commissioners to approve his eclectic building design.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
He was the central clown in an unconscious travesty of that famous oil painting, “The Spirit of ’76.”
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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.
