Airbrush

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A miniature, handheld paint sprayer, powered by compressed air or other gas, used for delicate, artistic painting, or sometimes retouching of photographs.
  2. 2
    an atomizer to spray paint by means of compressed air wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To paint using an airbrush.
  2. 2
    paint with an airbrush wordnet
  3. 3
    To touch up or enhance a photograph or person, often with intent to mislead.

    "This photo has definitely been airbrushed; no one has skin this smooth."

  4. 4
    To edit or alter something in order to make it appear better. broadly, figuratively

    "They'd spent one evening together sixteen months ago, and Falk was acutely aware that he'd probably airbrushed and edited at least some of it without meaning to."

Synonyms

All synonyms
doctorphotoshopphotoshop

Example

More examples

"This photo has definitely been airbrushed; no one has skin this smooth."

Etymology

From air + brush.

Related phrases

compressed airtouch up

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.