Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

shellac

[shuh-lak] / ʃəˈlæk /
VERB
batter
Synonyms
Antonyms
STRONG


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

It took the combination of shellac discs, electronic amplification and an automatic record-changer for National Automatic Music Company to manufacture the first 20-song multiplay machines in 1927.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026

Human societies have used plastics that occur naturally in the environment for hundreds of years, in the form of rubber, horn and shellac.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2025

Instead, “People getting ready to do things” is spelled out in egg yolk, besmirching the virginal purity of its white satin support; and “It’s only vanishing cream” is translucent shellac disappearing against deathly black.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2024

Trompe l’oeil artists were also highly in demand in the decorative arts, and wealthy patrons would hire peintres-décorateurs to shellac their drawing rooms with imitation marble and porphyry.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2022

Outside’s been dunked in a bucket of shiny clear shellac.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Ms. Zacarías shellacs a thin veneer of seriousness on the play by having the actors intone into microphones various statistics vaguely pertaining to the plotline.

From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2015

He runs three miles, showers, shellacs his white-gray hair and hops into the back of a black government sedan that waits outside his home in suburban Virginia.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sculptor Fingesten works chiefly in concrete and stucco, gets his variety of texture and color by mixing pigments into the wet cement or plaster, coating some figures with beeswax, finishing others with shellacs and acids.

From Time Magazine Archive

Though the sound is monaural, it has been restored lovingly and retains much of the warmth that characterized the best of Europe's prewar 78-r.p.m. shellacs.

From Time Magazine Archive

There's ice, usually, lots of it, that shellacs the sidewalks and windshields that then need to be scraped.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Retail outposts, brick-and-mortar food joints, and text-based media have not been thriving sectors for a while now, but they’ve been especially shellacked in the weird post-pandemic economy.

From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2026

Her best friend, Max, who was unofficially adopted by Suzanna’s parents and is shellacked in cynicism as played by the excellent Alden Ehrenreich, exhorts her to pull herself together and face her “big girl problems.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

That afternoon in 2025, with his shellacked coif flapping against his bronzed forehead in the wind, the president held up hastily-assembled poster boards bearing the names of the world’s countries and territories.

From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026

Three months ago, the Scots were shellacked 3-0 at home by Greece, halting any sort of momentum built from three wins on the spin.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025

The dolls were made of clay and shellacked with candle wax.

From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya

After their shellacking at Ibrox on Sunday, Celtic's response against Ferencvaros was another heavy defeat and three more goals conceded.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

The shellacking that big bank stocks have taken as of late could be an ominous sign about what’s next for the economy.

From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026

Then they marched into Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday afternoon and found themselves on the wrong end of a 28-7 shellacking by Georgia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025

Those who predicted a shellacking on the pitch and a visceral uprising in the stands were proven wrong.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2025

I, meanwhile, stayed home on Euclid Avenue, living upstairs from my mother as another leaden Chicago winter descended, shellacking the trees and sidewalks with ice.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama




Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com