Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A thin surface layer, as of finely grained wood, glued to a base of inferior material.
- noun Any of the thin layers glued together to make plywood.
- noun A decorative facing, as of brick.
- noun A deceptive, superficial show; a façade.
- transitive verb To overlay (a surface) with a thin layer of a fine or decorative material.
- transitive verb To glue together (layers of wood) to make plywood.
- transitive verb To conceal, as something common or crude, with a deceptively attractive outward show.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To overlay or face, as an inferior wood, with wood of a finer or more beautiful kind, so as to give the whole the appearance of being made of the more valuable material; cover with veneers: as, to
veneer a wardrobe or other article of furniture. - To cover with a thin coating of substance similar to the body, in other materials than wood, as in ceramics.
- Hence To impart a more agreeable appearance to, as to something vicious, worthless, or forbidding; disguise with a superficial attraction; gild.
- noun A thin piece of wood of a choice kind laid upon another of a more common sort, so as to give a superior and more valuable appearance to the article so treated, as a piece of furniture.
- noun A thin coating covering the body of anything, especially for decorative purposes: used when the material of the outer coating is similar to that of the body, as in ceramics or in paper-manufacturing.
- noun Show; superficial ornament; meretricious disguise.
- noun In entomology, a veneer-moth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A thin leaf or layer of a more valuable or beautiful material for overlaying an inferior one, especially such a thin leaf of wood to be glued to a cheaper wood; hence, external show; gloss; false pretense.
- noun (Zoöl.) any moth of the genus Chilo; -- so called because the mottled colors resemble those of veneering.
- transitive verb To overlay or plate with a thin layer of wood or other material for outer finish or decoration. Used also figuratively.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A thin decorative
covering of fine wood applied to coarser wood or other material. - noun An attractive
appearance that covers or disguises true nature or feelings. - verb woodworking To apply veneer.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun coating consisting of a thin layer of superior wood glued to a base of inferior wood
- noun an ornamental coating to a building
- verb cover with veneer
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They rarely draw the conclusion that the veneer is the most important thing about civilization.
In Chile, the Lessons of Isolation Theodore Dalrymple 2010
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"But, at the same time," he said, "there were broader currents of discrimination that pushed against what I call the veneer of legal equality."
Thestar.com - Home Page Tracey Tyler 2011
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Sliced into wafer thin veneer, that chunk could easily reap a profit with that piece of wood for the right woodworker (not me).
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Later in her ordeal she has the optimism to keep some chipped veneer from the cellar so she might later help police prove this was the house of the perpetrator.
3,096 Days by Natascha Kampusch Vanessa Thorpe 2010
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Sliced into wafer thin veneer, that chunk could easily reap a profit with that piece of wood for the right woodworker (not me).
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Basically this is a counting and matching game with a very thin veneer of theme .. but hey, if it gets you there, have fun!
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But that is usually a thin veneer for how completely clueless I really am.
A Moment of Weakness and Self-Doubt on Writing wendigomountain 2009
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Two doors lay open before him and he passed through, great, bristly shoulders scraping gilt veneer from the posterns.
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U.S. industry needs a steady supply of engineers and technicians to keep things humming, but the fact is that those who will really make a difference, who will come up with the products, or ideas, or research results that really mean something are a very thin veneer at the top.
The Missing Ingredient in the STEM Education Debate « Steve Wildstrom on Tech 2010
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The cloying scent of antiseptic was a thin veneer to the underlying smell of infection and decay.
oroboros commented on the word veneer
Sounds like the letters V N E R.
May 17, 2008
bilby commented on the word veneer
I like you a twenty-year old poet writes to me.
A beginning carpenter of words.
His letter smells of lumber.
His muse still naps in rose wood.
Ambitious noise in a literary sawmill.
Apprentices veneer a gullible tongue.
- Ewa Lipska, 'A Splinter', translated from the Polish by Robin Davidson and Ewa Elżbieta Nowakowska.
November 10, 2008