veneer

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English

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Etymology

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From German Furnier, from furnieren (“to inlay, cover with a veneer”), from French fournir (“to furnish, accomplish”), from Middle French fornir, from Old French fornir, furnir (“to furnish”), from Old Frankish frumjan (“to provide”), from Proto-Germanic *frumjaną (“to further, promote”). Cognate with Old High German frumjan, frummen (“to accomplish, execute, provide”), Old English fremian (“to promote, perform”). More at furnish.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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veneer (countable and uncountable, plural veneers)

  1. A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material.
    • 1951 May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, in Railway Magazine, pages 327-328:
      Compartment and corridor partitions are of blockboard, with appropriate decorative veneers to suit the varied interior decoration.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].
  2. An attractive appearance that covers or disguises one's true nature or feelings, the veneer of culture.
    • 2014 December 5, “Joy From the World”, in The New York Times Magazine, retrieved 6 December 2014:
      “Yalda,” Dabashi says, “has managed to survive the centuries because it has been gently recodified with a Muslim veneer.”

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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veneer (third-person singular simple present veneers, present participle veneering, simple past and past participle veneered)

  1. (transitive, woodworking) To apply veneer to.
    to veneer a piece of furniture with mahogany
    • 1947 January and February, “South African Royal Train”, in Railway Magazine, page 36:
      The stateroom walls are veneered with finely figured English chestnut with the skirting and mouldings in English walnut.
  2. (transitive, figurative) To disguise with apparent goodness.
    • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 6:
      [O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.
    • 1981 December 19, Andrew C. Irish, “Support For Gay Nurses”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 22, page 4:
      The currently advocated Family Protection Act, which thinly veneers its discriminatory attitudes about strict social conformity and the disallowance of individual choice with a stated concern for today's social fabric.

Coordinate terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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