stencil
a device for applying a pattern, design, words, etc., to a surface, consisting of a thin sheet of cardboard, metal, or other material from which figures or letters have been cut out, a coloring substance, ink, etc., being rubbed, brushed, or pressed over the sheet, passing through the perforations and onto the surface.
the letters, designs, etc., produced on a surface by this method.
to mark or paint (a surface) by means of a stencil.
to produce (letters, figures, designs, etc.) by means of a stencil.
Origin of stencil
1Other words from stencil
- sten·cil·er; especially British, sten·cil·ler, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use stencil in a sentence
The kids had a gift for him too, a tee shirt with ‘Baseball Spoken Here’ stenciled across the front.
“Still Standing,” read the firehouse motto stenciled on the front of the two rigs parked behind them.
Amid the spray-paint stains she had stenciled the Design Office logo.
Kim Gordon: Going Solo After Sonic Youth, and Why She Identifies With ‘Girls’ | Andrew Romano | April 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIts blue base color becomes recognizable at the top, where the familiar “POST NO BILLS” phrase is stenciled.
Franck de las Mercedes Lost Everything in a Fire…Except His Faberge Egg | Justin Jones | April 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTGrenades drawn on a red background, carefully locked with yellow stenciled locks.
Window shades, of oil stuff, with milk-maids and ruined castles stenciled on them in fierce colors.
Life On The Mississippi, Complete | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)Then they were painted, striped, and stenciled by air paint brushes.
America's Munitions 1917-1918 | Benedict CrowellShe was young and handsome though the shadow of maternity was blue-stenciled under her eyes.
The Title Market | Emily PostThe walls were stenciled meanly with a large letter A surmounted by a crown.
Vanished towers and chimes of Flanders | George Wharton EdwardsI pack in three-bushel barrels, stenciled with name of variety and grower, and ship by freight.
The Apple | Various
British Dictionary definitions for stencil
/ (ˈstɛnsəl) /
a device for applying a design, characters, etc, to a surface, consisting of a thin sheet of plastic, metal, cardboard, etc in which the design or characters have been cut so that ink or paint can be applied through the incisions onto the surface
a decoration, design, or characters produced in this way
to mark (a surface) with a stencil
to produce (characters or a design) with a stencil
Origin of stencil
1Derived forms of stencil
- stenciller, noun
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
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