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varnish

[vahr-nish] / ˈvɑr nɪʃ /


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.

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Nonfarmale’s transfer was deemed perfectly done, but discolored varnish was removed, holes and cracks were repaired, and, as is modern practice, restored areas were made congruent with the rest by delicate watercolor cross-hatching.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 23, 2026

I cubed the steak and browned it hard in my cherry red Dutch oven, watching it cast off its fat and leave behind a savory varnish on the enamel.

From Salon Jun. 16, 2025

By mixing this material with varnish, it could be applied as a paint.

From Science Daily May 2, 2024

With a nail brush in hand Lisha Dachor,19, whizzed around an events centre in Plateau state, northern Nigeria, adorning hundreds of fingernails with blue, pink and purple varnish.

From BBC May 2, 2024

In the doorway, he paused to draw in the cool air—it smelled of wood and hay and linseed oil and varnish.

From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker

Existing treatments like fluoride varnishes and remineralization products can help relieve symptoms but do not actually rebuild enamel.

From Science Daily Nov. 6, 2025

Göransson has scored every Coogler picture since his 2009 student film “Locks,” and he never merely varnishes them with music in postproduction — he is truly Coogler’s co-author.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 16, 2025

He then paints them with natural pigments – purple is made of crushed bugs, for example – and varnishes them with the sap of piñon, the stocky pine tree that dots the countryside.

From Seattle Times Apr. 29, 2023

MTV’s picture of the art world varnishes the sheer desperation and insecurity found at almost every level of the game.

From New York Times Apr. 5, 2023

Turpentine varnishes are no longer generally used in bookbinderies; in colour printing copal and amber varnishes are used.

From Practical Bookbinding by Adam, Paul

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

They were stripped of paint, polished and varnished for their second life.

From Seattle Times Feb. 8, 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

What began as a modest exercise culminated in a convivial, jovial celebration of a man sitting at a small table, cheering while an applauding, beaming crowd varnished heaps of adoration onto him.

From Salon Nov. 9, 2022

She felt under her hand the black-stained varnished pine of the banisters, vaguely neo-Gothic, immovably solid and sham.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Ironically, the 1974 varnishing and warm wax relining had helped keep the surface paint in place when the violent ripping happened.

From Los Angeles Times May 31, 2022

Shipwrights and volunteers will be recorking about 4,000 linear feet of seams on deck, conducting mechanical systems maintenance, painting and varnishing.

From Seattle Times Jan. 28, 2022

Díaz’s approach is plain and solid, like a well-built wooden chair before varnishing.

From New York Times Apr. 30, 2020

This particular relic was always one of the most relentlessly self-examining of those lumbering gods, and he spends as much time tarnishing his silver here as varnishing it.

From Slate Sep. 27, 2016

They went on with their work of sanding or varnishing the newly finished benches, but they didn’t talk.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes




Vocabulary lists containing varnish


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