as in painting
a picture created with oil paint
that artist is known to have created only oils and charcoal sketches
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in to grease
to coat (something) with a slippery substance in order to reduce friction
if you oil the machinery on a regular basis, it will operate more efficiently
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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show current usage.
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Recent Examples of oil
Madeline Buiano, Martha Stewart, 6 Jan. 2026
Historically, a spoonful of cod liver oil was administered to treat children with rickets, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency that results in brittle bones.
—Lauren Panoff, Verywell Health, 6 Jan. 2026
Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 17 Sep. 2025
When making thin-crust pizzas, avoid oiling or greasing the pan; instead, sprinkle some cornmeal or semolina to prevent sticking.
—Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for oil
Noun
Potato Chips Similar to seeds and nut packages sold for people, potato chips have salt, additives, preservatives, and a lot of oil, which aren't nutritious for birds.
—Verb
And Anderson, working with the cinematographer Michael Bauman, has devised a visual style that’s mesmerizing in its flow, with lavishly detailed images oiled with a dark ’70s grunge.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for oil
Noun
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Our references ranged from Elizabethan through to Georgian and Victorian, and from paintings and historical dress to contemporary fashion and representations of period costume in 20th-century films.—
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While new doors can cost anywhere from several hundred to thousands of dollars, staining, painting, and weather stripping can be done for under $150, according to O'Reilly.—
Verb
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Re-grease the pan and bake the remaining batter.—
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Take the talks on full-year appropriations bills, which could grease the Senate floor for a compromise three-bill package with the House and potentially another package of funding bills.—
Noun
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Participants can sculpt with air-dry clay, paint on canvas, or craft a collage or mixed-media piece such as a design vision board.—
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Yet those soldiers and sailors had to stretch across a vast global canvas, leaving fewer than three in ten of them to try to rout the insurgents in North America.—
Cite this Entry
“Oil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oil. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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