Dictionary

dauber en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈdɔːbə(ɹ)/

Etymology

From Middle English daubere, equivalent to daub + -er.

Meanings

1. (derogatory) One who, or that which, daubs; especially, a coarse, unskillful painter.
   • I'm not a good painter; I'm a dauber who can get a good likeness. Van Gogh or Cézanne would never have made it; I was given a bottle of Beaujolais and a set of directions. 2015, Erich Maria Remarque, The Promised Land, Random House, →ISBN, page 412:
   • After he had exerted all his powers to produce a masterpiece of art, the canons, upon viewing the picture, pronounced it a contemptible performance, and the artist a miserable dauber; and Vandyck could hardly obtain payment for his work. 1853, Shearjashub Spooner, Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3), page 140:
   • I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a common-place dauber, so I don't intend to try any more. 1869, Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives:
2. (qualifier:copperplate printing) A pad or ball of rags, covered with canvas, for inking plates.
3. A type of thick marker pen used to mark a bingo card.
   • Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dauber or a betting pencil? 2007, “Fluorescent Adolescent”, in Favourite Worst Nightmare, performed by Arctic Monkeys:
4. (archaic) A low and gross flatterer.
5. The mud wasp; the mud dauber.

Forms

Deriveds

dirt-dauber

Descendants

دَبْر (mud dauber)

Synonyms

trapes · gobaloon · schmuck · clodhopper · messup · goon · bumbler · auf · oaf · maladroit · shit bird · gawk · fuckup · screwup · muff · gype · inkball · turkey · blunderer · looby · blunderhead · gaum · butterfingers · sad sack · klutz · spaz · dobber · dumbshit · dauber · lomperd · fumbler · yutz · lubber · lummox · mess-up · fumblefingers · bungler · lumpkin · dabber · stumblebum · dabber · weapon · chucklehead · pisher · duffer · alcatote · galoot · palooka · slangrill · schlemiel · botcher · peabrain

Translations (14)

it imbianchino (unskillful painter) · de Pinseler (unskillful painter) · sh mazalo (unskillful painter) · it imbrattatore (unskillful painter) · eo fipentristo (unskillful painter) · pl bohomaz (unskillful painter) · fr rapin (unskillful painter) · cs patlal (unskillful painter) · fr barbouilleur (unskillful painter) · da klatmaler (unskillful painter) · de Kleckser (unskillful painter) · pl pacykarz (unskillful painter) · de Schmierer (unskillful painter) · it imbrattatele (unskillful painter)