veneer

From German Furnier, from furnieren (“to inlay, cover with a veneer”), from French fournir (“to furnish, accomplish”), from Middle French fornir, from Old French fornir, furnir (“to furnish”), from Old Frankish frumjan (“to provide”), from Proto-Germanic *frumjaną (“to further, promote”). Cognate with Old High German frumjan, frummen (“to accomplish, execute, provide”), Old English fremian (“to promote, perform”). More at furnish.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vəˈnɪə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /vəˈnɪɹ/

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• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

veneer (countable and uncountable, plural veneers)

1. A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material.
   • 1951 May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, in Railway Magazine, pages 327-328:

     Compartment and corridor partitions are of blockboard, with appropriate decorative veneers to suit the varied interior decoration.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].

2. An attractive appearance that covers or disguises one's true nature or feelings.
   • 2014 December 5, “Joy From the World”, in The New York Times Magazine, retrieved 6 December 2014:

     “Yalda,” Dabashi says, “has managed to survive the centuries because it has been gently recodified with a Muslim veneer.”

• brick veneer
• veneer moth
• veneer saw
• veneer theory

veneer (third-person singular simple present veneers, present participle veneering, simple past and past participle veneered)

1. (transitive, woodworking) To apply veneer to.

   to veneer a piece of furniture with mahogany

   • 1947 January and February, “South African Royal Train”, in Railway Magazine, page 36:

     The stateroom walls are veneered with finely figured English chestnut with the skirting and mouldings in English walnut.

2. (transitive, figurative) To disguise with apparent goodness.
   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 6:

     [O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.

• scumble

• Vereen, enerve, evener