1. To bond a thin layer of a material to the surface of a less attractive or inferior material; such as, coating a thin layer of superior wood glued to a base of inferior wood: The cabinet was veneered in oak.
2. Etymology: a thin layer of fine wood or other material to give an appearance of superior quality from about 1702, borrowed (with loss of r in the unstressed first syllable) from German Furnier, from furnieren, "to cover with a veneer, inlay," from French fournir, "to furnish".

The figurative sense of a merely outward show or appearance of some desirable quality is first recorded in English in 1868; "to cover with a veneer".