varnish : Idioms & Phrases

• a varnish prepared from the milky juice of the Rhus vernix, a small Japanese tree related to the poison sumac.

Webster 1913

• noun small Asiatic tree yielding a toxic exudate from which lacquer is obtained
  Japanese sumac; lacquer tree; Rhus verniciflua; Toxicodendron vernicifluum; Chinese lacquer tree; Japanese varnish tree; Japanese lacquer tree.
  
• noun deciduous tree widely grown in southern United States as an ornamental for its handsome maplelike foliage and long racemes of yellow-green flowers followed by curious leaflike pods
  phoenix tree; Firmiana simplex; Chinese parasol tree; Chinese parasol.
  

WordNet

• noun a cosmetic lacquer that dries quickly and that is applied to the nails to color them or make them shiny
  nail enamel; nail polish.
  

WordNet

• a varnish applied to metals, as brass, to give the appearance of gold.

Webster 1913

• a pellucid, fragrant, acrid, bitter resin, which exudes from the piney tree (Vateria Indica) when wounded. It is used as a varnish, in making candles, and as a substitute for incense and for amber. Called also liquid copal, and white dammar.

Webster 1913

• noun a thin varnish made by dissolving lac in ethanol; used to finish wood
  shellac.
  

WordNet

• noun large tree native to southeastern Asia; the nuts yield oil used in varnishes; nut kernels strung together are used locally as candles
  candlenut; Aleurites moluccana.
  
• noun small Asiatic tree yielding a toxic exudate from which lacquer is obtained
  Japanese sumac; lacquer tree; Rhus verniciflua; Toxicodendron vernicifluum; Chinese lacquer tree; Japanese varnish tree; Japanese lacquer tree.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a tree or shrub from the juice or resin of which varnish is made, as some species of the genus Rhus, especially R. vernicifera of Japan. The black varnish of Burmah is obtained from the Melanorrh&oe;a usitatissima, a tall East Indian tree of the Cashew family. See Copal, and Mastic.

Webster 1913