veined

1. 1
   adjectivein compounds

   Marked with veins, or showing fine lines and markings that resemble veins.

   Like the branching pattern visible on the back of a hand or across a feather.

   The botanist sketched each veined leaf in careful detail.

   A heavily veined slab of green stone formed the entry hall floor.

   Similarstreaked, marbled, striated, lined

   Oppositeplain, unmarked

   Note

   The adjective often has a color or a degree in front of it: blue-veined, heavily veined. Shakespeare writes of "blue-vein'd violets" in Venus and Adonis (1593), and Gerald Massey reverses the order in Craigcrook Castle (1856) with a hand "veined cerulean". It covers skin, leaves, marble and cheese alike. Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (1920) gives an old man "old veined lids".

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of vein.

   The painter veined the column with delicate gray streaks.

   The walls were veined with thin lines of gold leaf.

   Note

   Vein is a regular verb, so one form does both jobs: the painter veined the column (past), and the column has been veined (participle, with have). In the passive, especially with "with" (walls veined with gold), the participle comes very close to the descriptive adjective. The verb reading implies that someone did the marking, while the adjective only describes the pattern, however it arose.

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