Varnishing
Varnishing — a glossy coat over plain wood — often touches winning distinction by fraudulent means, with danger from grasping friends, though some read it as a funeral. The dream may ask where a shiny surface is being laid over something to seem finer than it is, and whether the deceptive sheen will hold or crack to reveal what's beneath.
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See what’s rising tonight →What the old dream-books say
These are the entries the historical dream-books record for varnishing, in their own words. They are period voices, not predictions, and they do not always agree with one another.
Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901
To dream of varnishing anything, denotes that you will seek to win distinction by fraudulent means.
To see others varnishing, foretells that you are threatened with danger from the endeavor of friends to add to their own possessions.
Fontaine, 1862
To dream that your house or furniture is being, or has been, newly varnished, is a sign of a funeral; but if you imagine that you are varnishing anything, it merely foretells a loss without a death.