paintbrush

American  

[peynt-bruhsh] / ˈpeɪntˌbrʌʃ /

noun

paintbrushes plural

1. a brush for applying paint, as one used in painting houses or one used in painting pictures.

2. any plant of the genus Castilleja.

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paintbrush British  

/ ˈpeɪntˌbrʌʃ /

noun

1. a brush used to apply paint

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paintbrushes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of paintbrush

First recorded in 1820–30; paint + brush ¹

Explanation

The long-handled tool with bristles that artists use for dabbing color onto canvas is a paintbrush. If you want to tint your walls in shades of pink, you'll also need a paintbrush. Although some painters have famously splattered, dripped, rolled, and otherwise creatively applied paint to a canvas, the vast majority of them use paintbrushes. The type of paintbrush a housepainter uses has a shorter handle and wider bristles, but its purpose is the same: to smoothly and precisely apply paint to a surface. Whether your medium is watercolors, oil paints, or deck stain, your paintbrush will have soft bristles and a wooden or plastic handle.

Example Sentences

Fahmy painted a Keith Haring-style black-and-white mural at the top of the stairs and continued onto the second-floor walls using a paintbrush taped to a broomstick.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

Now, he experimented with animal concepts of aesthetics, giving a paintbrush to a chimp called Congo.

From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026

During his time in jail, Tejero also swapped his pistol for a paintbrush, taking up art classes that saw him produce nearly 300 artworks, El Pais newspaper reported.

From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026

The area is home to San Bernardino flying squirrels and ash-gray Indian paintbrush, a federally protected plant found only in the San Bernardino Mountains.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2025

From his pocket he took the large glass paperweight, its insides a multitude of bright colors, along with the paint pot, and the paintbrush.

From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman