Daub (Hastings' Dictionary)

To daul), from Lat. dealbare (de down, (j?hi<s white), is properly to rub down a wall with whitewash. But in Engli.sh the word has always been u.sed for wa.shing or plastering with any avail- able substance. It is now used, even in its literal sense, contemptuously. It has always been used to describe bad writing, as Mnrprel. Ep. (1589), 'When men have a gift in writing, howe easie it is for them to daube paper'; or painting, as Foote (1752), Works, i. 9, ' How high did your genius soar?

To the daubing diabolical angels for ale-houses' ; or besmearing of any kind, but esp. with flattery, as South (171G), 'Let every one therefore attend the sentence of his conscience ; for, he may be sure, it will not daub, nor flatter ' ; or to hide deformity. In AV daub occurs once literally. Ex 2-' 'she took for him an ark of bul- rushes, and daubed It with slime and with pitch ' (^'J?'''-!';, from "'"■■', mortar, clay). Elsewhere onlv in Ezk (iSiD-is-K-isw 22-*) ^g, of whilewa.shing Jerus.

to hide its corruption, Heb. ['?'-]. whicli is also found in Lv l4<, «-< (FV 'plaister'), 1 Ch 29 (EV 'overlay'). Is 44'* (EV 'shut,' margins 'daubed'). The subst. daubing occurs only Ezk 13'^ ' where is the d. wherewith ye have daubed it ? ' (0"r) for the plaster itself, a tr" which has come from VVyclif. J. HASTINGS.