Lacquer

//ˈlæk.ɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A glossy, resinous material used as a surface coating; either a natural exudation of certain trees, or a solution of nitrocellulose in alcohol, etc. countable, uncountable

    "Had he deemed it "wisest, best," Mr. O'Donagough was not without the means of furnishing a splendid mansion in very showy style, and yet not leaving a single morsel of lacker, or or-molu, unpaid for."

  2. 2
    a hard glossy coating wordnet
  3. 3
    a black resinous substance obtained from certain trees and used as a natural varnish wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To apply a lacquer to something or to give something a smooth, glossy finish.
  2. 2
    coat with lacquer wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
varnishapply paintbedaubbedizenbegildbesmear

Example

More examples

"Please do your model building at home! The room's full of the smell of lacquer."

Etymology

Borrowed from French lacque (“a sort of sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca, lacca (“gum lac”), from Persian لاک (lâk), from Hindi लाख (lākh), from Sanskrit लाक्षा (lākṣā). Doublet of lac.

Related phrases

lacquer bandlacquer treenail lacquer

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