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daub.

Excrement or clay used as a bonding material in construction.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɔːb/UK/dɔb/US/dɑb/US, cot-caught-merger
  1. Excrement or clay used as a bonding material in construction.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A soft coating of mud, plaster, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A crude or amateurish painting.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/dɔːb/UK/dɔb/US/dɑb/US, cot-caught-merger
  1. To apply (something) to a surface in hasty or crude strokes.

    intransitive · transitive
    The artist just seemed to daub on paint at random and suddenly there was a painting.
  2. To paint (a picture, etc.) in a coarse or unskilful manner.

    transitive
  3. To cover with a specious or deceitful exterior; to disguise; to conceal.

    obsolete · transitive
  4. To flatter excessively or grossly.

    obsolete · transitive
  5. To put on without taste; to deck gaudily.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. To mark spots on a bingo card, using a dauber.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.