Airbrush is a small handheld tool that sprays a fine mist of paint or ink using compressed air. Artists squeeze a trigger or press a button, and air pushes the paint through a tiny nozzle, creating an extremely smooth, even coating without any brush strokes or streaks.

Airbrushes let artists do things regular brushes can't. They can blend colors so gradually that you can't see where one shade ends and another begins. They can create perfectly smooth surfaces on model airplanes or add realistic shadows to illustrations. Photo editors once used airbrushes to retouch photographs, removing blemishes or adjusting colors before computers could do this work digitally.

The tool gets its name from combining “air” and “brush,” since it uses air pressure to do what a brush normally does. You'll find airbrushes in art studios, custom car shops where people paint elaborate designs on vehicles, and anywhere else artists need precise, smooth application of color. Cake decorators even use food-safe airbrushes to paint designs on cakes.

Today, people also use airbrush as a verb meaning to edit or alter something to make it look more perfect, especially in photographs. When someone says a magazine cover photo has been airbrushed, they mean it's been digitally edited to remove imperfections, even though no actual airbrush tool was used.