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Glite Dictionary
palette knife

palette knife

1 5.4
A thin flat tool artists use to mix and spread oil paint on a palette or canvas
  • noun
  • /ˈpælɪt naɪf/
translation icon : espátula
  • The artist skillfully used the palette knife to create texture on the canvas.
  • paint with a palette knife
  • use a palette knife
  • mix with a palette knife

Examples

  • Ivory black, a little yellow ochre, flake white—don't over-mix with the palette knife; you're not making cookies.

    Academic text (2011)

  • She put down her palette knife and folded her arms as Burwell approached with Fontaine and Todd a step behind him.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • If there's pigments around and palette knives, I just need to be involved.

  • She carries a palette knife and a palette of paint.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The surface of the warm wax is pushed, impressed, and incised by the palette knife, "imprinting" a figure in relief.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Then you dip the palette knife to see that the coverture hardens on it evenly.

    Chocolat (2000)

  • With a palette knife, I picked at a dried medallion of ochre on one of his tabletops.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Leslie Saeta is an award-winning artist who paints fresh and colorful paintings using only a palette knife.

    Blog text (1)

  • They have multiple brushes, palette knives, different techniques for applying the paint, and how a conservator undoes work.

  • Bianca was stubbornly silent as she picked up her palette knife again and resumed sculpting the thick horizontal and vertical bands of color on the painting before her.

    Fiction book (2002)

Surface Forms

palette knife singular
palette knives plural

Morphology

palette + knife

The meaning ('a knife used with a palette for mixing or applying paint') is directly and compositionally derived from 'palette' (board for mixing colors) + 'knife' (a cutting/metal tool), so a learner who knows both words can infer it's a tool associated with palette use. This is a straightforward descriptive compound denoting a physical object/function and is cross-linguistically common, so it will be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Palette knife comes from the simple tool painters used: a small, flat knife they used on the wooden palette to scrape and mix paint. Imagine a flat blade like a little shovel that pushes and blends colour; that's why the name now means the tool artists use to 'mix' or 'apply' paint and to make 'texture' on a painting.