airbrush

airbrush — noun

1. a small handheld device that pushes paint or ink out as a fine mist by forcing c

1.nounB2
Definition

a small handheld device that pushes paint or ink out as a fine mist by forcing compressed air through a narrow nozzle, used by artists, illustrators, makeup artists, and photo retouchers to lay down very smooth, even coats of colour.

Example

Nadia bought her first airbrush to paint the dragon on her motorcycle helmet.

buy / use an airbrush

The makeup artist set up her airbrush before the bride arrived for photos.

occupational tool: makeup airbrush

Common collocations
  • use an airbrush
  • with an airbrush
  • load an airbrush
  • clean the airbrush
  • airbrush nozzle
Synonyms
  • spray gun

    larger industrial cousin; for cars, walls, furniture, not fine artwork

  • atomizer

    technical term for any device that breaks liquid into a mist

Grammar Patterns

with an airbrush

use an airbrush

Usage Note

Subject of 'use' or instrument introduced by 'with': 'paint something with an airbrush'. Plural form 'airbrushes' is fully regular. The tool is distinct from a spray gun, which is larger and used for walls, cars, and furniture rather than fine artwork.

Common Mistakes

She painted the wall with an airbrush.
She painted the wall with a spray gun.
an airbrush is for fine, small-scale work; for walls or cars use 'spray gun'.

airbrush — verb

Word family

  • airbrushed
    adjectiveB2
  • airbrushing
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four describe altering an image or record so the result looks better than the truth, but the connotations differ sharply. 'Retouch' is the most neutral — a wedding photographer 'retouches' photos to fix lighting, and nobody assumes anything dishonest. 'Photoshop' (informal verb from the software brand) is also fairly neutral and very broad: any digital photo edit, from removing a power line to swapping someone's head. 'Airbrush' carries a slight undertone of vanity or cover-up: magazines 'airbrush' models' bodies, and governments 'airbrush' inconvenient people out of group photos. 'Whitewash' is the strongest and most political: it is only used when uncomfortable facts about behaviour, history, or policy are deliberately hidden, as in 'the report whitewashed the bank's role in the crisis'.

airbrush ↗retouch ↗photoshop ↗whitewash

Common collocations

Nouns

  • airbrush nozzle
  • airbrush makeup
  • airbrush kit
  • airbrush artist

Adverbs

Phrases

  • airbrush out of history
  • heavily airbrushed photo
  • airbrush the truth

Prepositions

  • airbrush out
  • airbrush out of
  • airbrush from
  • airbrush onto
  • airbrush with

Etymology

English

First recorded in English in the 1880s, formed transparently from 'air' + 'brush'. The device itself was patented in the United States in 1876 by Francis Edgar Stanley and refined a few years later by Liberty Walkup; the noun therefore arrived together with the technology. The verb followed almost immediately, originally meaning simply 'to paint with an airbrush'. The modern figurative sense — editing photos to flatter, or removing people from official records — grew during the 20th century, fed by retouched magazine covers and by famous Soviet-era cases of officials being literally painted out of group photographs.