PAINTING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does painting mean? 

• PAINTING (noun)
  The noun PAINTING has 4 senses:

1. graphic art consisting of an artistic composition made by applying paints to a surface

2. creating a picture with paints

3. the act of applying paint to a surface

4. the occupation of a house painter

  Familiarity information: PAINTING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAINTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Graphic art consisting of an artistic composition made by applying paints to a surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

painting; picture

Context example:

his pictures hang in the Louvre

Hypernyms ("painting" is a kind of...):

graphic art (the arts of drawing or painting or printmaking)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "painting"):

water-color; water-colour; watercolor; watercolour (a painting produced with watercolors)

trompe l'oeil (a painting rendered in such great detail as to deceive the viewer concerning its reality)

tanka (a Tibetan religious painting on fabric)

still life (a painting of inanimate objects such as fruit or flowers)

semi-abstraction (a semiabstract painting)

seascape; waterscape (a painting of the sea (as distinguished from a landscape))

sand painting (a painting done by Amerindians (especially Navaho); made of fine colored sands on a neutral background)

pentimento (the reappearance in a painting of an underlying image that had been painted over (usually when the later painting becomes transparent with age))

oil painting (a picture painted with oil paints)

nude; nude painting (a painting of a naked human figure)

mural; wall painting (a painting that is applied to a wall surface)

monochrome (painting done in a range of tones of a single color)

illumination; miniature (painting or drawing included in a book (especially in illuminated medieval manuscripts))

landscape (painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery)

icon; ikon (a conventional religious painting in oil on a small wooden panel; venerated in the Eastern Church)

finger-painting (a painting produced by spreading paint with the fingers)

distemper (a painting created with paint that is made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder)

daub (an unskillful painting)

cityscape (painting depicting a city or urban area)

abstraction (an abstract painting)

Derivation:

paint (make a painting of)

paint (make a painting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Creating a picture with paints

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he studied painting and sculpture for many years

Hypernyms ("painting" is a kind of...):

beaux arts; fine arts (the study and creation of visual works of art)

art; artistic creation; artistic production (the creation of beautiful or significant things)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "painting"):

distemper (a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery)

fresco (a durable method of painting on a wall by using watercolors on wet plaster)

impasto (painting that applies the pigment thickly so that brush or palette knife marks are visible)

oil painting (the art or method of painting with oil paints)

water-color; water-colour; watercolor; watercolour (the art or technique of painting with watercolors)

Derivation:

paint (make a painting of)

paint (make a painting)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of applying paint to a surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

you can finish the job of painting faster with a roller than with a brush

Hypernyms ("painting" is a kind of...):

application; coating; covering (the work of applying something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "painting"):

spray painting (applying paint with a sprayer)

finger-painting (painting by using the fingers to spread the paint)

spatter; spattering; splash; splashing; splattering (the act of splashing a (liquid) substance on a surface)

Derivation:

paint (apply paint to; coat with paint)

paint (apply a liquid to; e.g., paint the gutters with linseed oil)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The occupation of a house painter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

house painting; painting

Context example:

house painting was the only craft he knew

Hypernyms ("painting" is a kind of...):

craft; trade (the skilled practice of a practical occupation)

Holonyms ("painting" is a part of...):

building; construction (the commercial activity involved in repairing old structures or constructing new ones)

Derivation:

paint (apply paint to; coat with paint)

 Context examples 

"That is one of my paintings over the chimney-piece."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

That was on the day when you were painting the flowers I had given you, Dora, and when I told you how much in love I was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"Look here," said he, unfolding a parcel in his hand, and displaying a small miniature painting, "do you know who that is?"

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

There are some who might find some pleasure in these paintings, but I learn the art of war is the only art which is held in honor in your island.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In spray painting, pressurised gas forces direct particles towards a surface, creating a sort of deposited material.

(Scientists Develop Spray Gun to Paint Bandages onto Wounds, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I had strayed forward where the sailors were painting, and I came to myself to find my advancing foot on the verge of overturning a paint-pot.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The simultaneous hybridization of multiple chromosome painting probes, each tagged with a specific fluorochrome or fluorochrome combination, has resulted in the differential color display of chromosomes, i.e. spectral or color karyotyping.

(Chromosome Painting, NCI Thesaurus)

He forgot his awkward walk and came closer to the painting, very close.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"If you look at a painting by Jackson Pollock, you see a lot of different colors," Lambart says.

(Earth's mantle looks like a painting, National Science Foundation)