veneering

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ve·neer

(və-nîr′)

1. A thin surface layer, as of finely grained wood, glued to a base of inferior material.

2. Any of the thin layers glued together to make plywood.

3. A decorative facing, as of brick.

4. A deceptive, superficial show; a façade: a veneer of friendliness.

tr.v. ve·neered, ve·neer·ing, ve·neers

1. To overlay (a surface) with a thin layer of a fine or decorative material.

2. To glue together (layers of wood) to make plywood.

3. To conceal, as something common or crude, with a deceptively attractive outward show.

[Alteration of obsolete faneering, from German Furnierung, from furnieren, to furnish, veneer, from French fournir, to furnish, from Old French furnir, of Germanic origin; see per in Indo-European roots.]

ve·neer′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

veneering

(vɪˈnɪərɪŋ)

1. material used as veneer or a veneered surface

2. rare a superficial show

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun	1.	veneering - coating consisting of a thin layer of superior wood glued to a base of inferior wood veneer coating, coat - a thin layer covering something; "a second coat of paint"
	2.	veneering - the act of applying veneer lamination - bonding thin sheets together

References in classic literature ?

Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London.

For, in the Veneering establishment, from the hall-chairs with the new coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with the new action, and upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all things were in a state of high varnish and polish.

The abyss to which he could find no bottom, and from which started forth the engrossing and ever-swelling difficulty of his life, was the insoluble question whether he was Veneering's oldest friend, or newest friend.

'My dear,' says Mr Veneering to Mrs Veneering, with an air of much friendly interest, while the door stands open, 'the Podsnaps.'

In the meantime, Mrs Podsnap, unable to originate a mistake on her own account, because Mrs Veneering is the only other lady there, does her best in the way of handsomely supporting her husband's, by looking towards Mr Twemlow with a plaintive countenance and remarking to Mrs Veneering in a feeling manner, firstly, that she fears he has been rather bilious of late, and, secondly, that the baby is already very like him.

It is questionable whether any man quite relishes being mistaken for any other man; but, Mr Veneering having this very evening set up the shirt-front of the young Antinous in new worked cambric just come home, is not at all complimented by being supposed to be Twemlow, who is dry and weazen and some thirty years older.

In this complicated dilemma, Mr Veneering approaches the large man with extended hand and, smilingly assures that incorrigible personage that he is delighted to see him: who in his fatal freshness instantly replies:

Then pouncing upon Twemlow, who holds back with all his feeble might, he is haling him off to present him, as Veneering, to Mrs Podsnap, when the arrival of more guests unravels the mistake.

Is appealed to, at the fish stage of the banquet, by Veneering, on the disputed question whether his cousin Lord Snigsworth is in or out of town?

Boots and Brewer regard this as a man to be cultivated; and Veneering is clear that he is a renumerative article.

Reflects the new Veneering crest, in gold and eke in silver, frosted and also thawed, a camel of all work.

View in context

How thin a veneering of "chivalry" covered the essential brutality of the code under which such encounters were possible we shall see.