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Definition of "painting" []

  • The process, art, or occupation of coating surfaces with paint for a utilitarian or artistic effect. (noun)
  • A picture or design in paint. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "painting" in a sentence
  • "The rule is so stern, that all delight in mere incidental beauty, which painting often triumphs in, is wholly forbidden to sculpture; -- for instance, in _painting_ the branch of a tree, you may rightly represent and enjoy the lichens and moss on it, but a sculptor must not touch one of them: they are inessential to the tree's life, -- he must give the flow and bending of the branch only, else he does not enough 'see Pallas' in it."
  • "The rule is so stern that all delight in mere incidental beauty, which painting often triumphs in, is wholly forbidden to sculpture; -- for instance, in _painting_ the branch of a tree, you may rightly represent and enjoy the lichens and moss on it, but a sculptor must not touch one of them: they are inessential to the tree's life, -- he must give the flow and bending of the branch only, else he does not enough "see Pallas" in it."
  • "Take, for example, the term painting "plein air," a French expression meaning "open air" and used colloquially by the French for camping and outdoor sports that refers to creating a work of art outside."