veneer

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material.

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

   “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. (countable, uncountable)An attractive appearance that covers or disguises one's true nature or feelings, the veneer of culture.

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

verb

1. (transitive)To apply veneer to.

   “to veneer a piece of furniture with mahogany”

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

2. (figuratively, transitive)To disguise with apparent goodness.

   “[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.”

   “The currently advocated Family Protection Act, which thinly veneers its discriminatory attitudes about strict social conformity and the disallowance of individual choice with a stated concern for today's social fabric.”