dauber

plural daubers

1. derogatoryOne who, or that which, daubs; especially, a coarse, unskillful painter.

   I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a common-place dauber, so I don't intend to try any more.

   1869, Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

   2 more examples

   After he had exerted all his powers to produce a masterpiece of art, the canons, upon viewing the picture, pronounced it a contemptible performance, and the artist a miserable dauber; and Vandyck could hardly obtain payment for his work.

   1853, Shearjashub Spooner, Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3), page 140

   I'm not a good painter; I'm a dauber who can get a good likeness. Van Gogh or Cézanne would never have made it; I was given a bottle of Beaujolais and a set of directions.

   2015, Erich Maria Remarque, The Promised Land, Random House, →ISBN, page 412

   Synonyms: alcatote, auf, botcher, bumbler, bungler, blunderer, blunderhead, butterfingers

2. copperplate printingA pad or ball of rags, covered with canvas, for inking plates.

   Synonyms: dabber, inkball

3. A type of thick marker pen used to mark a bingo card.

   Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dauber or a betting pencil?

   2007, “Fluorescent Adolescent”, in Favourite Worst Nightmare, performed by Arctic Monkeys

   Synonyms: dabber, dobber

4. archaicA low and gross flatterer.
5. The mud wasp; the mud dauber.

plural Daubers

1. A surname from German.