FluentPlex

varnish

/ˈvɑː(ɹ)nɪʃ/ verb C2
  1. To apply varnish. (intransitive)
  2. To cover up with varnish. (transitive)
  3. To make something superficially or deceptively attractive (transitive) · varnish the report
  4. To gloss over a defect. (transitive)

He/she/it varnishes · Past varnished · Past participle varnished · -ing form varnishing

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Verb forms

Base form
varnish
He/she/it
varnishes
Past
varnished
Past participle
varnished
-ing form
varnishing

From the library

“They were tan boots and had never been varnished.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 41 · C1
Cavalcanti, dressed in black, like one of Goethe’s heroes, with varnished shoes and white silk open-worked stockings, passed a white and tolerably nice-looking hand through his light hair, and so displayed a sparkling diamond, that in spite of Monte Cristo’s advice the vain young man had been unable to resist putting on his little finger.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 778 · C1
He bestowed the same attention upon the cambric front of a shirt, which had considerably changed in color since his entrance into the prison, and he polished his varnished boots with the corner of a handkerchief embroidered with initials surmounted by a coronet.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 1037 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.