patina

Over-eager hobbyists sometimes dunk coins in vinegar to clean off their protective patinas or straighten bent pieces of metal, potentially erasing clues as to how they were once used or why they were discarded.

Like all denim clothing, the Bone Button looks even better with a patina, so I’m looking forward to breaking it in even more during the fall.

His prose is burnished with an antique patina that evokes the mid-19th century.

Like the backs of iPods past, you can expect all that knocking around in your pocket, purse or pet collar to leave a patina on your gadget.

Old paintings acquire a patina that’s part of their heritage.

They were done to give a thin patina of ersatz legitimacy to what is otherwise flagrant sexual assault.

Phones on desks, linens on beds, catalog cards spilling out of the filing cabinets—all covered with a fine patina of dust.

Organicness, too, can offer a patina of healthfulness to unsavory substances.

Sandoval has also managed to burnish his image with a patina of integrity in the scandal-scarred Silver State.

And sometimes the Court takes a political issue and envelopes it with a constitutional patina.

The girls at the windows had nothing for it but to come downstairs, and Patina came with them, for Don Roque brooked no delay.

There was a faint patina of dust covering the glossy surface, but it was very faint, indeed.

The green patina that covered the bronze was uncannily beautiful in the moonlight, and the water was molten silver.

Not necessarily chocolate-roofed, however: the eaves may be tinged instead with a soft patina of caf au lait.

The arrowheads are made of flint, rather more opaque and with a duller patina than English flint.