From Middle English daub (noun), from Middle English dauben (“to plaster or whitewash; cover with clay; bespatter”, verb), from Old Northern French dauber (“to whitewash; plaster”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Latin dealbāre (“to whiten thoroughly”), which would make it a doublet of dealbate.
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) Excrement or clay used as a bonding material in construction.
(countable, uncountable) A soft coating of mud, plaster, etc.
(countable, uncountable) A crude or amateurish painting.
Ah, but what if he penned what in the art schools they call an 'artist's statement' wherein he explained the relation of his gibberish or his daubs to the mainstream of art or writing? 2008, Joseph Agassi, Ian Charles Jarvie, A Critical Rationalist Aesthetics, page 16:
From Middle English daub (noun), from Middle English dauben (“to plaster or whitewash; cover with clay; bespatter”, verb), from Old Northern French dauber (“to whitewash; plaster”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Latin dealbāre (“to whiten thoroughly”), which would make it a doublet of dealbate.
Meanings
(intransitive, transitive) To apply (something) to a surface in hasty or crude strokes.
The artist just seemed to daub on paint at random and suddenly there was a painting.
[…] Mrs. Gibson could not well come up to the girl’s bedroom every night and see that she daubed her face and neck over with the cosmetics so carefully provided for her. 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “The Bride at Home”, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC, page 180:
Cylindrical lanterns daubed in red writing hung at intervals across wooden beams […] 2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 21, p. 226:
An artist friend fitted her out with his castoff palettes, brushes, and colors, and she daubed away, producing pastoral and marine views such as were never seen on land or sea. 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
They were expecting to see me, she said, daubing paint on the canvas and stepping back to gauge the effect. 1969, Chaim Potok, The Promise, New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 3, Chapter 16, p. 379:
[…] as he watched, [the motorcar] came up the snow-covered road, green and brown painted, in broken patches of daubed color, the windows blued over so that you could not see in […] 1940, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 15, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, London: Jonathan Cape, page 185:
Blood was running to her shoe, and her stocking was torn in a jagged hole. […] she wet toilet paper and daubed until the red was gone from her stocking, but the red kept coming. 1952, Patricia Highsmith, chapter 3, in The Price of Salt, Norton, published 2004, page 39:
[…] she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch […] 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 2:3:
Unfortunately, one side of the new five-car train is daubed in graffiti, having been vandalised in Wembley Yard, en route from Switzerland. 2023 March 8, “Network News: First Tyne & Wear Metro '555' already 'tagged'”, in RAIL, number 978, page 9:
(transitive) To paint (a picture, etc.) in a coarse or unskilful manner.
1826, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, An Essay on Mind, Book I, in The Earlier Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1826-1833, London: Bartholomew Robson, 1878, pp. 25-26,
If some gay picture, vilely daubed, were seen
With grass of azure, and a sky of green,
Th’impatient laughter we’d suppress in vain,
And deem the painter jesting, or insane.
[…] a lame, imperfect Piece, rudely daub’d over with too little Reflection and too much haste. 1695, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, Observations on the Art of Painting, London: W. Rogers, page 201:
If a Picture is daub’d with many bright and glaring Colours, the vulgar Eye admires it as an excellent Piece […] 1725, Isaac Watts, chapter 3, in Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC, part II (Of Judgment and Proposition), section 1, page 189:
[…] this stretch of the shore is still filthy with trash; high-school gangs still daub huge scandalous words on its beach-wall, and seashells are still less easy to find here than discarded rubbers. 1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, Vintage, published 2010:
(obsolete, transitive) To cover with a specious or deceitful exterior; to disguise; to conceal.
No flattering praises daub my stone,
My frailties and my faults to hide; 1820, John Clare, “The Universal Epitaph”, in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, London: Taylor & Hessey, page 91:
So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue, c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:
(obsolete, transitive) To flatter excessively or grossly.
I can safely say, however, that without any daubing at all, I am, very sincerely, Your very affectionate, humble servant, 1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 2, Letter 28, p. 73:
(obsolete, transitive) To put on without taste; to deck gaudily.
1697, John Dryden, “On the Three Dukes killing the Beadle on Sunday Morning, Febr. the 26th, 1670/1” in John Denham et al., Poems on affairs of state from the time of Oliver Cromwell, to the abdication of K. James the Second, London, p. 148,
Yet shall Whitehall the Innocent, the Good,
See these men dance all daub’d with Lace and Blood.
[…] whenever they came in order to pay those islanders a visit, [they] were generally very well dressed, and very poor, daubed with lace, but all the gilding on the outside. 1762, Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, London, Volume 1, Letter 50, p. 224:
(transitive) To mark spots on a bingo card, using a dauber.
de bemalen (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · pl pomazać (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · ru малева́ть (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · de kaschieren (to cover with a specious or deceitful exterior) · ru ма́зать (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · nl kliederen (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · wa tchabårer (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · de bestreichen (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · tr beceriksizce boyamak (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · ca empastifar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · nl besmeren (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · hu rámázol (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · bg мажа (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · fr barbouiller (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · de schmieren (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · bg цапам (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · es embadurnar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · sh namrljati (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · cs naplácat (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · de klecksen (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · gd sloisir (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · es pintarrajear (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · it imbrattare (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · to pani (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · wa dåborer (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · hu ráken (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · pt borrar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · fi sutia (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · nl kladschilderen (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · haw poni (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · tr acemice boyamak (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · la lino (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · es manchar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · es untar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · mi pani (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · tr sıvamak (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · gl emboutar (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · yi פּאַטשקען (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes) · hu odamázol (to apply something in hasty or crude strokes)