A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She rushed off to have her nails varnished at her favorite salon, which was destroyed in the mall strike but has reopened in a building nearby.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
She told MPs that this included a “foetal skeleton posed under a glass dome, a human thigh bone turned into a cane, a human jawbone necklace and the varnished skull of a six-year-old”.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2024
A quick way to see whether something is laminated or varnished is to tear it, she explained.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood and varnished with pine sap.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 29, 2023
He left it there in the moonlight, a heap of varnished wicker and splintered wood.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
