marquetry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the decorative craft of fitting thin pieces of differently colored wood, shell, metal, or other veneer into a surface to form a design

   The cabinetmaker used marquetry to create a scene of birds among flowering branches.

2. 2
   noun

   a pattern, object, or surface produced by this inlaying technique

   The table's floral marquetry remained vivid after restoration.

Borrowed from French marqueterie, from marqueter, 'to inlay or variegate.' English shortened and reshaped the ending to -try, while marqueterie continued as a less common English spelling as well as the French form.

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