First recorded in 1965–70
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After getting out a few cans of spray paint, something drew him to the manhole cover in the street.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 26, 2025
She said Carruthers used spray paint and a chainsaw to mark and then cut a wedge out of the tree, while Graham filmed it on his mobile phone.
From BBC • Jul. 15, 2025
“You legally cannot bring a battery or a can of spray paint into this landfill,” said Dallas Lawrence, an Agoura Hills resident and president of the Las Virgenes School Board in Calabasas.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2025
In another part of the video taken at night, he is seen apparently urinating on the pillar and using spray paint to write “toilet” in English.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2024
His tail whips and licks against our little cardboard Cadillac covered in spray paint.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
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.
