shellacs

verb

present tense third-person singular of shellac
as in bombs
to defeat by a large margin the local football team was shellacked 35-0 in their final outing for the season

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shellacs
  1. bombs
  2. waxes
  3. pastes
  4. whips
  5. masters
  6. dusts
  7. overcomes
  8. trims
Verb
  • The campus is eerily silent, even as Israel attacks Lebanon and the United States bombs Iran.
    — Jonathan Zimmerman, Chicago Tribune, 9 June 2026
  • The United States bombs Iran's nuclear facilities days later.
    — Erin Mansfield, USA Today, 1 Mar. 2026
Definition of bombs
Verb
  • Haidt, who is the same age as the writer Bret Easton Ellis, waxes nostalgic for many of the freedoms enjoyed in Ellis’s 2023 novel, The Shards.
    — Rob Haskell, Vogue, 11 Aug. 2026
  • The account, SamServed, has posts that date back to November of last year, in which Smith waxes poetic about a Copenhagen restaurant called Kebabistan.
    — Li Goldstein, Bon Appetit Magazine, 27 Feb. 2026
Definition of waxes
Verb
  • The sequencer pastes together the strings and the quality scores, along with some other metadata, read by read, to form what is called a FASTQ file.
    — Dmitri Pavlichin, IEEE Spectrum, 22 Aug. 2018
Definition of pastes
Verb
  • Instead of floating crosses in, Saka either whips his deliveries low near the six-yard box or works a slightly more central position to cut the ball back with a firmer connection.
    — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 26 June 2026
  • The vessel bends, blocks, and whips the wind into complex micro-currents before the air ever hits the sails.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 2 June 2026
Definition of whips
Verb
  • The real competitive advantage of the next decade will not belong to the CEO who masters every AI platform, but the CEO who consistently makes better decisions.
    — Jose Luis Gonzalez Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Finally, Kim masters the steps and takes to the stage with confidence, as her family cheers her on!
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 11 May 2026
Definition of masters
Verb
  • Winter is also a wonderful surprise, when soft snow blankets valley trails and dusts the mountaintops.
    — Lisa Kadane, Travel + Leisure, 23 May 2026
  • Snow sometimes dusts the surrounding slopes, melting by afternoon into damp earth as manzanita and mountain lilac begin to flower.
    — Josh Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2026
Definition of dusts
Verb
  • Used in the group’s previous drone research, this landing gear disperses energy to reduce impact and overcomes multiple engineering challenges.
    — Tim Hornyak, IEEE Spectrum, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Somaliland is proximate and overcomes some of the limitations imposed by other regional hosts like Djibouti and Middle East partners.
    — Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of overcomes
Verb
  • Sovereign-adjacent platforms in Australia, private credit desks, insurance capital, and trading firms are now funding compute demand that exists whether or not any single hyperscaler trims its budget.
    — Jon Markman, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026
  • Your steady focus turns play into practice, while your patience trims perfectionism and lets authentic joy take the stage.
    — Tarot.com, The Orlando Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2026
Definition of trims
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

shellackings
shellacs
shelled
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shellacs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shellacs. Accessed 27 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of southpaw

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
alt-684346df967d5
Add A Letter Quiz Pick the letter that goes in the same spot in fou...
See All