vbl. sb. [f. as prec.]
1. The action of applying varnish or of coating anything with varnish.
1505. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 148. For vernesing of x pair sterap irnis.
1536–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 697. Cum emendacione lez bossez, et wernysshynge.
1609. Bible (Douay), Ecclus. xxxviii. 34. He wil geve his hart to finish the vernishing thereof.
1632. Sherwood, s.v., A kind of varnishing like to damasking.
1688. Stalker (title), Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing, Being a compleat Discovery of those Arts.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Japanning, For in this laying it on depends the principal art of varnishing.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., vi. § 1. 360. Linseed oil … is also largely employed … in the varnishing of oiled silk.
1885. Athenæum, 11 July, 55/2. It proves to be … untouched except for a little clumsy varnishing.
fig. 1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 139. Whence comes all Circumvention in Commerce, adulterating of Wares, vouching and varnishing against all good Faith and Honesty?
2. A coating of varnish. In quot. fig.
1754. P. H., Hiberniad, iii. 22. These Advantages, however shewy, are but the outward Varnishing of Man.
3. attrib., as varnishing brush; varnishing day (see quot. 1862).
c. 1825. Turner, in Westm. Gaz. (1896), 1 May, 8/3. When we have no more ‘varnishing’ days we shall not know one another.
1825. Sir T. Lawrence, in D. E. Williams, Life (1831), II. 406. Will you likewise procure a large flat varnishing brush?
1862. W. Sandby, Hist. R. Acad. Arts, I. 274. In the year 1809 … the ‘varnishing days’ were appointed, whereby the members of the Academy were granted the privilege of retouching and varnishing their pictures after they were hung, and prior to the opening of the exhibition.
1896. Harper’s Mag., April, 680/2. Varnishing-day came at last. The portrait was received with enthusiasm and given a place of honor.
