▪ I. painting, vbl. n.
(ˈpeɪntɪŋ)
[f. paint v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb paint, or that which is painted.
1. The result or product of applying paint or colour; colouring; pictorial decoration.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 392 Ine schelde beoð þreo þinges, þet treo, and þet leðer, & þe peintunge. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xvi. xcix. 587 Glasse is amonge stones as a fole amonge men for it takyth al manere of colour and payntyng. 1607 Shakes. Timon i. i. 155 A peece of Painting, which I do beseech Your Lordship to accept. 1760–1 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 496 Repairing the painting of the room. 1817 J. Evans Excurs. Windsor etc. 22 A rich piece of painting in enamel. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 112 Gazers who admired the painting and gilding of his Excellency's carriages. |
2. concr. A representation of an object or scene on a surface by means of colours; a picture.
| c 1388 in Wyclif's Sel. Wks. III. 462 Alle men worschipynge..þoo ymagis or any payntyngus, synnen ande done ydolatry. 1483 Cath. Angl. 266/2 A Payntynge, pictura, emble[m]a. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 21 With..your hands in your pocket, like a man after an old painting. 1639 N. N. tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman i. 10 To refresh the eyes with their paintings. 1809 W. Blake Descr. Catal. 62 The distinction made between a Painting and a Drawing. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Painting 275 Perhaps the most remarkable painting of the eighteenth century in France. |
3. a. The representing of objects or figures by means of colours laid on a surface; the art of so depicting objects.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 390/2 Peyntynge, or portrature..pictura. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 12 The facultie of Painters..knoweth no end in painting. 1770 Sir J. Reynolds Wks. (1855) 329 There are excellencies in the art of painting beyond what is commonly called the imitation of Nature. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Art Wks. (Bohn) I. 148 Painting and sculpture are gymnastics of the eye. |
b. fig. The depicting in words, representation in vivid language.
| 1615 Chapman Odyss. xix. 288 Thus many tales Ulysses told his wife, At most but painting, yet most like the life. 1695 Dryden Troilus & Cressida Pref. b iij, The painting of it is so lively, and the words so moving. a 1877 Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1879) 207 Few things in literary painting are more wonderful. |
4. The action of colouring or of adorning with paint; the colouring of the face with paint; an instance of this. Also fig.
| 1497 Nav. Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 237 Workyng abought the payntyng of the seid ship. 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Loue 48 These his vayne payntynges of his margent, shall hereafter make his cause more odious. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. vi. 116 Painting was practised by Harlots, adulterated complexions well agreeing with adulterous conditions. 1715 South Serm. IV. i. 46 Like the Plaistering of Marble, or the Painting of Gold. 1880 Ouida Moths iii. 17 It is all cant to be against painting. |
† 5. concr. Pigment, paint. Obs.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Mudas, painting for womens faces, Fucus. 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking-Glass Wks. (Grosart) XIV. 27 The costly paintings fetcht fro curious Tyre, Haue mended in my face what nature mist. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 695 Adulterated with meal, chalk, white-earth, or painting. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 158 Thou defacest the features of God, if thou cover thy Face with painting. |
6. attrib. and Comb., as painting apron, painting-cleaner, painting-machine, painting-room, etc.; † painting-cloth = painted cloth.
| 1668 R. Head Eng. Rogue ii. 112 Old painting Cloath..Dives in the flames..the Prodigal on Horse-back. 1769 C. Leadbetter Mech. Dialling xxvii. 148 Painting Brushes of Several Sizes. 1804 Europ. Mag. May 329/1 The back offices and painting-room abutted upon Langford's..auction⁓room. 1837 Mrs. Sherwood H. Milner I. xiii. 57 Bits of broken plates, which Henry used as pallets and painting⁓stones. 1852 Thackeray Esmond i, As one has seen unskilful painting-cleaners do. 1876 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 311 He would come to the painting-room and sit silent for hours. 1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 125/2 The spray painting-machine is brought into operation where large unbroken surfaces have to be covered. 1966 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept ii. 59 A painting-machine like Jean Tinguely's to produce unexpected designs. |
▪ II. ˈpainting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That paints: see the verb.
| 1628 Earle Microcosm., Player (Arb.) 42 He is like our painting Gentle-women, seldome in his owne face, seldomer in his cloathes. 1752 Foote Taste ii. Wks. 1799 I. 23 That gentleman..that we see'd at the painting man's. |
Hence ˈpaintingness (rare), pictorial quality.
| 1801 W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. I. 374 One cannot enough praise the expression and paintingness of the style. |