scumble

Uncertain origin; perhaps from scum with frequentative -le.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskʌmbəl/
• Rhymes: -ʌmbəl

scumble (countable and uncountable, plural scumbles)

1. An opaque kind of glaze (layer of paint).

scumble (third-person singular simple present scumbles, present participle scumbling, simple past and past participle scumbled)

1. To apply an opaque glaze to an area of a painting to make it softer or duller.
   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow:

     manure [...] dead leaves [...] and the odd unstomachable meal thrown or vomited there by this or that sensitive epicurean—all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable topsoil in which anything could grow

   • 2000, Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass:

     The moon was brilliant, the path a track of scumbled footprints in the snow, the air cutting and cold.

   • 2013, Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch:

     "Also —" indicating with the flat of his thumb the too-bright shine coming off the canvas: overly varnished.
     "I agree. And here —" tracing midair the ugly arc where an over-eager cleaning had scrubbed the paint down to the scumbling.