Crossword clues for varnish
varnish
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Varnish \Var"nish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Varnished; p. pr. & vb. n. Varnishing.] [Cf. F. vernir, vernisser. See Varnish, n.]
To lay varnish on; to cover with a liquid which produces, when dry, a hard, glossy surface; as, to varnish a table; to varnish a painting.
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To cover or conceal with something that gives a fair appearance; to give a fair coloring to by words; to gloss over; to palliate; as, to varnish guilt. ``Beauty doth varnish age.''
--Shak.Close ambition, varnished o'er with zeal.
--Milton.Cato's voice was ne'er employed To clear the guilty and to varnish crimes.
--Addison.
Varnish \Var"nish\, n. [OE. vernish, F. vernis, LL. vernicium; akin to F. vernir to varnish, fr. (assumed) LL. vitrinire to glaze, from LL. vitrinus glassy, fr. L. vitrum glass. See Vitreous.]
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A viscid liquid, consisting of a solution of resinous matter in an oil or a volatile liquid, laid on work with a brush, or otherwise. When applied the varnish soon dries, either by evaporation or chemical action, and the resinous part forms thus a smooth, hard surface, with a beautiful gloss, capable of resisting, to a greater or less degree, the influences of air and moisture.
Note: According to the sorts of solvents employed, the ordinary kinds of varnish are divided into three classes: spirit, turpentine, and oil varnishes.
--Encyc. Brit -
That which resembles varnish, either naturally or artificially; a glossy appearance.
The varnish of the holly and ivy.
--Macaulay. -
An artificial covering to give a fair appearance to any act or conduct; outside show; gloss.
And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you.
--Shak.Varnish tree (Bot.), a tree or shrub from the juice or resin of which varnish is made, as some species of the genus Rhus, especially Rhus vernicifera of Japan. The black varnish of Burmah is obtained from the Melanorrh[oe]a usitatissima, a tall East Indian tree of the Cashew family. See Copal, and Mastic.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-14c., from Old French vernis "varnish" (12c.), from Medieval Latin vernix "odorous resin," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Late Greek verenike, from Greek Berenike, name of an ancient city in Libya (modern Bengasi) credited with the first use of varnishes. The town is named for Berenike II, queen of Egypt (see Berenice). Figurative sense of "specious gloss, pretense," is recorded from 1560s.
late 14c.; see varnish (n.). Related: Varnished; varnishing. Century Dictionary defines varnishing day as "A day before the opening of a picture exhibition on which exhibitors have the privilege of retouching or varnishing their pictures after they have been placed on the walls." The custom is said to date to the early years of 19c.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A type of paint with a solvent that evaporates to leave a hard, transparent, glossy film. 2 Anything resembling such a paint; glossy appearance. 3 (context by extension English) A deceptively showy appearance. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To apply varnish. 2 (context transitive English) To cover up with varnish. 3 (context transitive English) To gloss over a defect.
WordNet
v. cover with varnish [syn: seal]
n. paint that provides a hard glossy transparent coating
Wikipedia
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film that is primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss sheens by the addition of "flatting" agents. Varnish has little or no color, is transparent, and has no added pigment, as opposed to paints or wood stains, which contain pigment and generally range from opaque to translucent. Varnishes are also applied over wood stains as a final step to achieve a film for gloss and protection. Some products are marketed as a combined stain and varnish.
After being applied, the film-forming substances in varnishes either harden directly, as soon as the solvent has fully evaporated, or harden after evaporation of the solvent through curing processes, primarily chemical reaction between oils and oxygen from the air ( autoxidation) and chemical reactions between components of the varnish. Resin varnishes "dry" by evaporation of the solvent and harden almost immediately upon drying. Acrylic and waterborne varnishes "dry" upon evaporation of the water but will experience an extended curing period. Oil, polyurethane, and epoxy varnishes remain liquid even after evaporation of the solvent but quickly begin to cure, undergoing successive stages from liquid or syrupy, to tacky or sticky, to dry gummy, to "dry to the touch", to hard. Environmental factors such as heat and humidity play a very large role in the drying and curing times of varnishes. In classic varnish the cure rate depends on the type of oil used and, to some extent, on the ratio of oil to resin. The drying and curing time of all varnishes may be sped up by exposure to an energy source such as sunlight, ultraviolet light, or heat.
Varnish is an HTTP accelerator designed for content-heavy dynamic web sites as well as heavily consumed APIs. In contrast to other web accelerators, such as Squid, which began life as a client-side cache, or Apache and nginx, which are primarily origin servers, Varnish was designed as an HTTP accelerator. Varnish is focused exclusively on HTTP, unlike other proxy servers that often support FTP, SMTP and other network protocols.
Varnish is used by high-profile, high-traffic websites including Wikipedia, online newspaper sites such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Hindu, Corriere della Sera, social media and content sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and Tumblr. Of the Top 10K sites in the web, around a tenth use the software.
Varnish is a mixture used to harden primarily wood.
Varnish may also refer to:
- Varnish (software), a reverse proxy and HTTP accelerator
- Jessica Varnish, British track cyclist
- Desert varnish, a coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments
- Fluoride varnish, applied to the tooth's surface in dentistry
Usage examples of "varnish".
With no distraction from Wayne and Eddie she worked steadily without interruption, and by late afternoon most of the overpaint was removed, leaving the portrait almost ready to part with its discoloured varnish.
Burnishing the horizontal pictures, it broke up against these in delicate lines where there were cracks in the varnish, and from all these great black squares framed in with gold stood out here and there some lighter portion of the painting--a pale brow, two eyes that looked at you, perukes flowing over and powdering red-coated shoulders, or the buckle of a garter above a well-rounded calf.
Her parents, rich once more, had first decided to start living in strict Russian style which they somehow associated with ornamental Slavic scriptory, postcards depicting sorrowing boyar maidens, varnished boxes bearing gaudy pyrogravures of troikas or firebirds, and the admirably produced, long since expired art magazines containing such wonderful photographs of old Russian manors and porcelain.
I laid it down on the otherwise empty dresser beside a mark where a small spillage had blistered the varnish.
The boundary wall was of raw unpointed stone, the gate of stout, heavily varnished wood.
This is where the rich Anglos mow their lawns and wash their cars and varnish their boats and fume about the Yids, the Ukies and those darned Indians on welfare, he decided.
Sandpaper, calking material and calking compound, antifouling marine hull paint, deck paint and varnish.
He also completed the exterior of the auto, giving it several coats of purple paint and varnish, so that when it was finished, though it was different in shape from most autos, it was as fine an appearing car as one could wish.
Harper took off the backpiece and filed the grip, and then he varnished it with oil and beeswax until the handle was dark brown and shining.
Some problems we solved with brainwork, some with handwork, some with brutishness the texture of the ink, a mix of soot and varnish and linseed oil, was improved by pissing in it.
Hair, blood, and brains splashed a Rorschach on the wall behind the chair, where a 3D foldout girl was spreading eternal legs over a varnished mahogany bedpost.
Slick, willing to oblige, yielded to these entreaties, and soon produced the clock--a gawdy, highly varnished, trumpery looking affair.
Those were the Mongols of the occupying garrison, all dressed in armor of varnished hides or metal chain mail, and striding contemptuously through the street crowds, shoving aside anybody who stepped in their way.
Woodwork devoid of paint or varnish, but carved in most elaborate and capricious openwork, the whiteness of the pinewood being preserved by constant scrubbing with soap and water.
They were varnishing ladders, and when they finished the ladders, they would start painting the tracks for the conveyors that ran nonstop when the packinghouse was in full operation.