1. veneer - Noun
2. veneer - Verb
To overlay or plate with a thin layer of wood or other material for outer finish or decoration; as, to veneer a piece of furniture with mahogany. Used also figuratively.
A thin leaf or layer of a more valuable or beautiful material for overlaying an inferior one, especially such a thin leaf of wood to be glued to a cheaper wood; hence, external show; gloss; false pretense.
Source: Webster's dictionaryHope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment. Evan Esar
Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness. Honoré de Balzac
Far from poisoning the mind, pornography shows the deepest truth about sexuality, stripped of romantic veneer. Camille Paglia
Only when the true ends of society have nothing to do with the sublime does "culture” become necessary as a veneer to cover over the void. Culture can at best appreciate the monuments of earlier faith; it cannot produce them. Allan Bloom
Each of us is leading a difficult life, and when we meet people we are seeing only a tiny part of the thinnest veneer of their complex, troubled existences. To practice anything other than kindness towards them, to treat them in any way save generously, is to quietly deny their humanity. Derren Brown
I think of part of myself as a very passionate person, but I don't think that comes across. I don't know where it comes from, that reserve or veneer of British niceness. But it doesn't bother me if other people don't spot the passion. I know it's there... As long as Blake knows. Julie Andrews