Forms: α. 4–6 vernysshe, 5 vernysche (-nyschyn), 6 wernysh-, 6–8 vernish, 6 Sc. vernes-. β. 5 varnesch-, 6 Sc. varneis, warnis, 6– varnish. [ad. OF. verniss(i)er, vernic(i)er (F. vernisser), or verniss-, vernir, f. vernis VARNISH sb. Cf. med.L. and It. verniciare, Pg. envernizar, Sp. barnizar.]
1. trans. To paint over, to coat, with varnish; to overlay with a thin coating composed of varnish.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxiii. (Bodl. MS.). Bokes þat beþ yvarnesched with þe gomme þerof beþ nouȝt iȝete wiþ wormes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 509/1. Vernyschyn, vernicio.
1530. Palsgr., 765/2. I vernysshe a spurre, or any yron with vernysshe, je vernis. Come hyther, spurryer, be my spurres well vernysshed.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 12. Some had their armyng sweardes freshly burnyshed and some had them conningly vernished.
1589. Alex. Hume, Poems (S.T.S.), 55. Corslets of pruif, and mony targe of steill, Sum varneist bright, sum dorred diuerslie.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxix. 288. They bringe likewise from this Province oyle of Aspicke, which … Painters vse much … to vernish the pictures.
1697. J. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xv. (1715), 127. Several other Colours were also made use of, nor were they barely varnish’d over with them, but very often anneal’d by Wax melted in the Fire.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xxxvii. 147. Plaister varnish’d with a green colour.
1755. Dict. Arts & Sci., s.v. Japanning, With a pencil varnish it over with the finest white varnish.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc., ii. 112. These pictures, I am persuaded, were afterwards constantly varnished.
1861. T. A. Trollope, La Beata, I. vii. 152. The copy … was not to be sent home till it had been varnished.
absol. 1573. Art Limming (1588), 9. If you will vernish on silver, then take the Almon of Bengewyne.
b. transf. To invest with a bright or glossy appearance; to smear or stain with some substance similar to varnish.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 229. Wel hath the myller vernysshed his heed, Ful pale he was, for-dronken, and nat reed.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 53. Ful pale drunke, weel vernyssht of visage. Ibid., 54. And whan thou hast weel vernyssht thi pate, To take a sleepe in hast thou wolt the dresse.
1589. Greene, Tullies Love, Wks. (Grosart), VII. 117. I found him in his bed chamber, his wife slaine and the blade yet varnished with bloud, grasped in his fist.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Spectacles, xxxiii. Wks. (Grosart), II. 300. The Leaves fresh varnisht lively green, The Blossoms various to be seen.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 11. Her eyes are … of a pure golden colour, most admirable to behold, especially when varnish’d with a full light.
a. 1733. Ramsay, Tartana, 17. You who … Drain from the flow’rs the early dews of May, To varnish on your cheek the crimson dye.
1841. Maunder, Sci. & Lit. Treas. (1843), s.v. Scarabæus, The colour [of the Scarabæus auratus] is most brilliant, highly varnished, and of a golden green.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. x. Next morning, that horrible old Lady Tippins begins to be dyed and varnished for the interesting occasion.
2. To embellish or adorn; to improve, trick out, furbish up.
14[?]. Sir Beues (MS. C.), 3777. Blak sendel and … rede, Vernysched wiþ rosys off syluyr bryȝt.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 450. The Elizabeth of Euphues being but shadowed for others to vernish, but begun for others to ende.
1589. Nashe, Martin Marprelate, Wks. (Grosart), I. 189. All my foolerie I bequeath to my good friend Lanam;… it … may serue (perhappes) for yong beginners, if it be newe varnished.
1639. G. Daniel, Vervic, 720. My Name, which stood The Boast of Fame, I varnish’t with my Blood.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 162. To dress up and to varnish the Story of Pausanias.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 154. Which were set off with all the fulsome Rhetorick that the penners could varnish them with.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 374. [Here is] old Franck’s Seven Acts of Mercy varnished up.
1887. Huxley, in Life (1900), II. 154. It will go on and be varnished into a simulacrum of success.
3. To cover or overlay with a specious or deceptive appearance; to gloss over, disguise.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. iv. 3. Though they be wylfully blind & vernish their unryghtuousnesse with counterfet colours.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxv. § 15. The church of Rome hath hitherto practised and doth profess the same adoration to the sign of the cross,… howsoeuer they varnish and qualifie their sentence.
1641. Milton, Reform., Wks. 1851, III. 11. But what doe wee suffer … Prelatisme, as we do, thus to blanch and varnish her deformities with the faire colours … of Episcopacie?
1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Skiamachia, Wks. (1711), 198. Wicked Counsels may be varnished with the shining Oil of sly Pretences.
1713. Addison, Cato, II. ii. Cato’s voice was ne’er employed To clear the guilty, and to vernish crimes.
1783. Blair, Rhet., xxv. (1812), II. 160. The art of varnishing weak arguments plausibly.
1835. Woman, II. 241. The female character of this day is varnished, not polished.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xx. 520. He does not varnish—he does not even polish vice.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. iii. 134. A corrupt heart thinly varnished by a coating of affectation.
4. With over (in senses 2 and 3).
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., ii. Wks. 1851, III. 103. God … never intended to leave the Government … to be patch’t afterwards, and varnish’t over with the devices … of mans imagination.
1643. Denham, Cooper’s H., 125. And yet this Act, to varnish o’r the shame Of Sacriledge, must bear Devotions Name.
1694. Addison, England’s Greatest Poets, Misc. Wks. 1726, I. 38. Or had the Poet ne’er profan’d his pen, To verish o’er the guilt of faithless men.
1719. Young, Busiris, III. i. O, how can you abuse your sacred reason,… To varnish o’er, and paint, so black a crime!
1773[?]. Macpherson, Ossian’s Poems, Dissert. Concern. Æra of Ossian (1785), II. 227. When they [sc. poets] found their themes inadequate to the warmth of their imaginations, they varnished them over with fables.
1824. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 193. He may hide it by increased zeal and violence, or varnish it over by simulated gaiety.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Theol. Ess., iii. (1888), 49. To varnish over these distinctions.
Hence Varnishing ppl. a.
1796. Mod. Gulliver, 203. The mischiefs flowing from my fallacious varnishing pamphlet were not thought of.
