varnish vs whitewash

varnish

noun
  • A type of paint with a solvent that evaporates to leave a hard, transparent, glossy film. 

  • Anything resembling such a paint; glossy appearance. 

  • A deceptively showy appearance. 

verb
  • To make something superficially or deceptively attractive 

  • To gloss over a defect. 

  • To cover up with varnish. 

  • To apply varnish. 

whitewash

noun
  • A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white. 

  • The most basic type of thickening agent, flour blended with water to make a paste. 

  • A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep. 

  • A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements. 

verb
  • To cover over errors or bad actions. 

  • In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. 

  • To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence. 

  • To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by discounting the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation. 

How often have the words varnish and whitewash occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )