daub
/dɔb/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.16 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To apply (something) to a surface in hasty or crude strokes.
Intransitive verb; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Ah, but what if he penned what in the art schools they call an 'artist's statement' wherein he explained the relation of his gibberish or his daubs to the mainstream of art or writing?"
- "The artist just seemed to daub on paint at random and suddenly there was a painting."
- "[…] she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch […]"
- "[…] Mrs. Gibson could not well come up to the girl’s bedroom every night and see that she daubed her face and neck over with the cosmetics so carefully provided for her."
- "An artist friend fitted her out with his castoff palettes, brushes, and colors, and she daubed away, producing pastoral and marine views such as were never seen on land or sea."
- "[…] as he watched, [the motorcar] came up the snow-covered road, green and brown painted, in broken patches of daubed color, the windows blued over so that you could not see in […]"
Etymology
From Middle English daub (noun), from Middle English dauben (“to plaster or whitewash; cover with clay; bespatter”, verb), from Old Northern French dauber (“to whitewash; plaster”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Latin dealbāre (“to whiten thoroughly”), which would make it a doublet of dealbate.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɔb/
- British English: /dɔːb/