as in to wax
to defeat by a large margin
the local football team was shellacked 35-0 in their final outing for the season
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shellac
After finishing as the Western Conference's top seed with one of the best records in league history, 68-14, the Thunder had emphatically shellacked Memphis in each of their first two games of the series.
—
Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2025
But Jimmy Butler is, despite the 112-86 shellacking the Miami Heat gave his Golden State Warriors Tuesday night.
—Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2025
These big tech company stocks stood there no matter what kind of shellacking the futures dealt us.
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 16 Mar. 2025
The floor tiles are actual pennies, which were installed and shellacked by the owner.
—Kathryn O'Shea-Evans, Architectural Digest, 11 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shellac
Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2025
But Jimmy Butler is, despite the 112-86 shellacking the Miami Heat gave his Golden State Warriors Tuesday night.
—Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2025
These big tech company stocks stood there no matter what kind of shellacking the futures dealt us.
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 16 Mar. 2025
The floor tiles are actual pennies, which were installed and shellacked by the owner.
—Kathryn O'Shea-Evans, Architectural Digest, 11 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shellac
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shellac
Verb
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On the off-day between the Yankees' series in Chicago and Houston, manager Aaron Boone was in Chapel Hill, watching as the Tar Heels were waxed 48-14 by the TCU Horned Frogs in Bill Belichick's debut as UNC's head coach.—
Jackson Roberts,
MSNBC Newsweek,
2 Sep. 2025
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Skywatchers on Saturday night will be treated to the gorgeous sight of a waxing crescent moon close to Antares, an unmistakably bright red supergiant star shining in the south.—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
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With rich textures like burgundy abrasivato leather and cream crepe de chine, AW25 strikes a balance between elegance and playfulness.—
Essence,
Essence,
25 Aug. 2025
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Made to serve 12, this big-batch recipe blends coffee liqueur and cream with a hint of seasonal spice.—
Sarah Martens,
Better Homes & Gardens,
25 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Tidy, good on the ball, defensively tight and can bomb up the left flank, just don’t expect many assists (three in 137 appearances for Lille).—
Tim Spiers,
New York Times,
2 Sep. 2025
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No one has bombed North Korea, after all.—
Rivka Galchen,
New Yorker,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
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So for Thomson and Schwarber alike, that his first home run powered a Phillies’ five-run inning to overcome an early 3-0 deficit mattered more than the history that followed.—
Howard Megdal,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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Nashville's new public health director has a plan for overcoming growing public skepticism on vaccines, reducing public illness outbreaks and improving the physical and mental health for children and adults.—
Beth Warren,
The Tennessean,
28 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Olbinski ran to his car, while others hunkered down and braved the brutal winds and whipping sand.—
Hayleigh Evans,
AZCentral.com,
28 Aug. 2025
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The Milwaukee mother who claimed her stepfather threw her baby from a balcony has now been charged with child abuse herself, accused of whipping her younger brothers.—
Drake Bentley,
jsonline.com,
28 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Before applying for a role, paste the job description into an AI tool and ask it to highlight missing skills or terms in your CV.—
Andrew Fennell,
Forbes.com,
26 Aug. 2025
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The stan fighting quickly turned ugly; a fan posted a racist meme of Huda as the police officer who murdered George Floyd, with Olandria’s face pasted on Floyd’s.—
Alejandra Gularte,
Vulture,
26 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Algorithmic bias happens quietly, buried in mathematical models that few testing teams understand.—
Maneesh Sharma,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
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Meta’s chatbot scandal should not be dismissed as a PR misstep or a bad paragraph buried in internal documents.—
The AI Insider,
Interesting Engineering,
26 Aug. 2025
Verb
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This indicates the victims were skinned, the flesh removed, the bodies disarticulated, and then cooked and eaten.—
Jennifer Ouellette,
ArsTechnica,
21 Aug. 2025
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Plus, undoing a vital world economic order his predecessors built; invading the Federal Reserve’s independence; gerrymandering congressional districts and weaponizing his Justice Department against an ex-president and a New York attorney general who skinned his hide in court.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
18 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shellac.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shellac. Accessed 5 Sep. 2025.
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