oil painting
Americannoun
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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
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 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
An oil painting depicting a smiling Pretti in glasses, a beanie and a scarf, was among the most recent.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 6, 2026
The print was one from a limited edition of 850 published in 1973, with the original oil painting having being completed in 1961.
From BBC • Sep. 2, 2025
A 18th-century oil painting has allegedly been damaged after a museum visitor tripped while taking a selfie.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2025
Above us, stern nuns in crisp whites watched our intrusion from the strokes of a massive oil painting housed in a gilt frame.
From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth
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.
