▪ I. daub, v.
(dɔːb)
Forms: 4–7 daube, dawbe, 4–5 dobe, 5 doybe, 5–6 doube, 6–9 dawb, 7– daub.
[a. OF. daube-r:—L. dealbāre to whiten over, whitewash, plaster, f. de- down, etc. + albāre to whiten, f. albus white. The word had in OF. the senses ‘clothe in white, clothe, furnish, white-wash, plaster’; in later F. ‘to beat, swinge, lamme’ (Cotgr.); cf. curry, anoint, etc. All the English uses appear to come through that of ‘plaster’.]
1. trans. In building, etc.: To coat or cover (a wall or building) with a layer of plaster, mortar, clay, or the like; to cover (laths or wattle) with a composition of clay or mud, and straw or hay, so as to form walls. (Cf. dab v. 8.)
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 313 Cleme hit [the ark] with clay comly with-inne, & alle þe endentur dryuen daube withouten. 1382 Wyclif Lev. xiv. 42 With other cley the hows to be dawbid. 1483 Cath. Angl. 102 Dobe, linere, illinere. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxiv. 145 Thys bastylle muste be aduironned with hirdels aboute and dawbed thykke with erthe and clay thereupon. 1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) Civ/1 Of his shepecote dawbe the walles round about. 1530 Palsgr. 507/2 Daube up this wall a pace with plaster..I daube with lome that is tempered with heare or strawe. 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. ii. 71, I will tread this vnboulted villaine into mortar, and daube the wall of a Iakes with him. c 1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 169 Little hutts and hovels the poor Live in Like Barnes..daub'd with mud-wall. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss. 243 Stud and mud walling, building without bricks or stones, with posts and wattles, or laths daubed over with road-mud. |
| absol. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 37 He shall bothe thacke & daube at his owne cost and charge. 1642 Rogers Naaman 534 He falls to dawbing with untempered mortar. |
| fig. 1612–5 Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xii. vi, He..is faine to dawbe up a rotten peace with the basest conditions. |
2. To plaster, close up, cover over, coat with some sticky or greasy substance, smear.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. vi. i. (R.), Whose wrinkled furrows..Are daubed full of Venice chalk. 1614 ― Recoll. Treat. 174 Take away this clay from mine eyes, wherewith alas they are so dawbed up. 1658 A. Fox tr. Wurtz' Surg. ii. xxviii. 190 She had been plaistered and dawbed with Salves a long time. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. xv. 309 We daubed him all over..with tar. 1832 Lander Adv. Niger II. viii. 26 The women daub their hair with red clay. |
| fig. 1784 Cowper Task v. 360, I would not be a king to be..daubed with undiscerning praise. |
b. To smear or lay on (a moist or sticky substance). Also fig.
| 1646 Fuller Wounded Consc. (1841) 289 For comfort daubed on will not stick long upon it. 1750 E. Smith Compl. Housewife 309 With a fine rag daub it often on the face and hands. |
c. To bribe, ‘grease’. slang (Cf. quot. 1876 in daub n. 2.)
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Dawbing, bribing. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, The cull was scragged [hanged] because he could not dawb. |
3. To coat or cover with adhering dirt; to soil, bedaub. Also fig.
| a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 31 Her heles, the whiche is doubed with filthe. 1535 Joye Apol. Tindale 50 Dawbing eche other with dirte and myer. 1651 C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 5 Such..verities, as would have adorned, and not dawb'd the Gospel. 1661 Pepys Diary 30 Sept., Having been very much daubed with dirt, I got a coach and home. 1721 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 197 The fall plunged me in a puddle..and daubed me. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 596 Filthy metal that one could not touch without daubing one's fingers. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iii, To daub himself with ink up to the roots of his hair. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. xi. (1883) 89 My name is too deeply daubed with the Fleet mud; it cannot be cleansed. |
† 4. To soil (paper) with ink, or with bad or worthless writing. Obs.
| 1589 Marprel. Epit. (1843) 6 When men have a gift in writing, howe easie it is for them to daube paper. a 1618 Bradshaw Unreas. Separation (1640) 81 In the proofe of the Assumption he daubs sixe pages. 1792 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 7 The latter loss, to one who daubs so much, is nothing. |
5. In painting: To lay on (colours) in a crude or clumsy fashion; to paint coarsely and inartistically. Also absol.
| 1630 [see daubed]. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. x. 394 A trovell will serve as well as a pencill to daub on such thick course colours. 1695 Dryden tr. Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting (L.), A lame, imperfect piece, rudely daubed over with too little reflection, and too much haste. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 147 The falsehood of the colours which [Walpole] suffered to be daubed over that measure. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine Introd. 4 It had been so often painted, not to say daubed, already. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. li. 77 He leaned upon his stick, and daubed away briskly at the background. |
† 6. To cover (the person or dress) with finery or ornaments in a coarse, tasteless manner; to bedizen. Obs. or dial.
| a 1592 Greene & Lodge Looking Glass Wks. (Rtldg.) 124/2 My wife's best gown..how handsomely it was daubed with statute-lace. 1639 tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman ii. 32 They dawb their habits with gold lace. 1760 Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 13 A person hugely daubed with gold. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., Daub'd out, fantastically dressed. |
† 7. fig. To cover with a specious exterior; to whitewash, cloak, gloss. Obs.
| 1543 Becon Agst. Swearing Early Wks. (1843) 375 Perjury cannot escape unpunished, be it never so secretly handled and craftily daubed. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. v. 29 So smooth he dawb'd his Vice with shew of Vertue. 1678 Young Serm. at Whitehall 29 Dec. 31 To dawb and palliate our faults, is but like keeping our selves in the dark. 1683 tr. Erasmus' Moriæ Enc. 114 They dawb over their oppression with a submissive flattering carriage. 1785 [see daubed]. |
† b. absol. or intr. To put on a false show; to dissemble so as to give a favourable impression. c. To pay court with flattery. Obs. or dial.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. i. 53 Poore Tom's a cold. I cannot daub it further. 1619 W. Whately God's Husb. ii. (1622) 52 What auailed it Ananias and Saphira, to dawbe and counterfeit? 1619 W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1630) 288 With such idle distinctions doe they dawbe with conscience. 1650 Baxter Saints' R. iii. xiii. (1662) 508 Do not daub with men, and hide from them their misery or danger. a 1716 South (J.), Let every one, therefore, attend the sentence of his conscience; for, he may be sure, it will not daub, nor flatter. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Daubing..paying court for the sake of advantage. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Daub, to flatter, or besmear with false compliment, with the object of gaining some advantage. |
▪ II. daub, n.
(dɔːb)
[f. daub v. In some dialects (dɒb, dab), whence the spelling dab: cf. dab n.1 12.]
1. Material for daubing walls, etc.; plaster, rough mortar; clay or mud mixed with stubble or chaff, used with laths or wattle to form the walls of cottages, huts, etc. Hence wattle and daub (also dab).
| 1446 Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Somerset Record Soc. 82), Item for ryses for the dawbes..ij d. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 514 Payd..for bryngyng of dawbe and cley in to the said castell. 1587 Manch. Crt. Leet Rec. (1885) II. 18 For y⊇ cariage of any mucke, dunge, dawbe, clay. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 113 The soyle..which, with water..they make into clay, or a certaine dawbe. 1857 Livingstone Trav. xix. 369 Traders' houses..built of wattle and daub. 1876 R. F. Burton Gorilla L. II. 22 Heaps of filthy hovels, wattle and daub and dingy thatch. 1884 Cheshire Gloss. 279 A raddle and dobe house. |
b. Anything that is daubed or smeared on. c. fig. Insincere compliments, flattery. dial.
| 1602 Narcissus 209 (1893) Though with the dawbe of prayse I am loath to lome her. 1693 Dryden Juvenal's Sat. vi. (R.), She duely, once a month, renews her face; Mean time, it lies in daub, and hid in grease. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Daub, hypocritical affection. |
2. An act or instance of daubing.
| 1669 A. Browne Ars Pict. (1675) 82 And with two or three dawbes of your great Pencil, lay it on in an instant. 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 256 (Jam.) Many a time have I gotten a wipe with a towel; but never a daub with a dishclout before. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Daub o' t' hand, a bribe; compensation. ‘They got a daub o' t' hand for 't.’ |
3. A patch or smear of some moist substance, grease, colouring, etc.
| 1731 Swift Poems, Beautiful Young Nymph, [She] must, before she goes to Bed, Rub off the Dawbs of White and Red. 1881 Tylor Anthropol. 418 Their bodies painted with black daubs. |
4. A coarsely executed, inartistic painting.
| 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. xii, And did you step in, to take a look at the grand picture?.. 'Tis a melancholy daub, my lord! 1784 Cowper Task vi. 285 That he discerns The difference of a Guido from a daub. 1839 Marryat Diary in Amer. 1st Ser. I. 292 A large collection of daubs, called portraits of eminent personages. 1880 A. H. Huth Buckle I. i. 15 A coarse daub of a picture. |
5. attrib. or Comb., as daub-hole.
| 1848 S. Bamford Early Days i. (1859) 13 An old timber and daub house. 1875 Lanc. Gloss., Daub-hoil, daub-hole, a clay or marl pit. |