painted

1. 1
   adjective

   Having had a layer of paint applied to its surface.

   The painted railings along the pier had begun to peel.

   Restorers cleaned decades of grime from the painted ceiling.

   Similarcoated, colored, decorated

   Oppositeunpainted, bare

   Note

   Here the paint is a coat, not a picture. The seamless painted walls and floors of a film set are simply surfaces finished in color. The adjective does not grade: a wall is painted or it is not, never "more painted." A painted ceiling can tip either way, toward this coat or toward the "depicted in paint" meaning, and only context tells you whether a scene was painted on it.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of paint.

   The artist painted the harbor at dawn.

   He has painted every house on the street.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty. It is the plain past (she painted the door) and, after have or be, the participle of perfect and passive clauses (the door has been painted). Most uses take an object, but the artist's intransitive sense needs none: he painted for forty years. Once the participle settles before a noun, it shades into the "coated with paint" adjective.

3. 3
   adjective

   Represented or depicted in a picture made with paint.

   The painted angels on the chapel dome drew every visitor's gaze.

   Art historians dated the painted scene to the early Renaissance.

   Similarpictured

4. 4
   adjective

   Wearing cosmetics, especially makeup applied to the face.

   The painted performers swept onto the cabaret stage.

   He barely recognized her painted face beneath the bright lights.

   Similarmade-up

   Oppositebare, natural

   Note

   Said of stage performers, it can be neutral. Said of a woman, it often carries a sneer. Painted Jezebel is the stock insult, still shouted in Law of the West (1985), where makeup stands in for vanity or worse. Use it plainly for actors and dancers. Elsewhere, expect the word to sound judgmental.

5. 5
   adjective

   Brightly colored, looking as though the colors were painted on.

   A painted sky of crimson and violet hung over the canyon.

   The painted clouds caught the last of the daylight.

   Similarcolorful, vivid, bright, vibrant, multicolored

   Oppositedull, drab, colorless

   Note

   Nothing has touched a brush here. The colors are natural, and the word says only that they look applied. It turns up in names for landscapes and animals, such as the painted desert and the painted turtle, where it marks bold, patterned coloring. In descriptive prose it suits skies and clouds, and it reads as admiration, unlike the "superficial" meaning.

6. 6
   adjectivefiguratively

   Superficial or only cosmetic, lacking any real depth of feeling underneath.

   The host greeted them with a painted cheerfulness that fooled no one.

   Behind his painted concern lay complete indifference.

   Similarfalse, feigned, fake, forced, artificial

   Oppositegenuine, sincere, heartfelt, real

   Note

   The figurative step from the "wearing makeup" sense is a feeling worn on the surface like cosmetics. Its natural partners are expressions, as in a painted smile or painted cheerfulness. H. A. DeRosso's .44 (c. 1953) shows the typical scene: a fixed smile held in place while the body goes rigid. The word implies concealment, so it is never praise.

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