airbrush

• air brush
• air-brush

air +‎ brush

airbrush (plural airbrushes)

1. A miniature, handheld paint sprayer, powered by compressed air or other gas, used for delicate, artistic painting, or sometimes retouching of photographs.

airbrush (third-person singular simple present airbrushes, present participle airbrushing, simple past and past participle airbrushed)

1. To paint using an airbrush.
2. To touch up or enhance a photograph or person, often with intent to mislead.
3. (by extension, figurative) To edit or alter something in order to make it appear better.
   • 2022, Jane Harper, Exiles, page 287:

     They'd spent one evening together sixteen months ago, and Falk was acutely aware that he'd probably airbrushed and edited at least some of it without meaning to.

• (enhance a photograph): photoshop, doctor