ETCHING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Etching

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/ˈɛtʃɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Etching n.

The act, art, or practice of engraving by means of acid which eats away lines or surfaces left unprotected in metal, glass, or the like. See Etch, v. t.

A design carried out by means of the above process; a pattern on metal, glass, etc., produced by etching.

An impression on paper, parchment, or other material, taken in ink from an etched plate.

Etching figures (Min.), markings produced on the face of a crystal by the action of an appropriate solvent. They have usually a definite form, and are important as revealing the molecular structure.

Etching needle, a sharp-pointed steel instrument with which lines are drawn in the ground or varnish in etching.

Etching stitch (Needlework), a stitch used outline embroidery.

verb

Etch v. t. (past & past part. etched; pres. part. etching)

To produce, as figures or designs, on mental, glass, or the like, by means of lines or strokes eaten in or corroded by means of some strong acid. Note: The plate is first covered with varnish, or some other ground capable of resisting the acid, and this is then scored or scratched with a needle, or similar instrument, so as to form the drawing; the plate is then covered with acid, which corrodes the metal in the lines thus laid bare.

To subject to etching; to draw upon and bite with acid, as a plate of metal. "I was etching a plate at the beginning of 1875."

To sketch; to delineate. (R.) "There are many empty terms to be found in some learned writes, to which they had recourse to etch out their system."

Etch v. i. To practice etching; to make etchings.

See images of 'Etching'

Etymology of 'Etching'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Etching" Quotes from Famous Books

... weed, especially the blue or purple variety. Its drooping knotted threads also make a pretty etching upon the ...

— The Writings of John Burroughs • John Burroughs

... am not." As if it absorbed her, and no one could have said that it did not, for she kept house beautifully, Nellie straightened an etching; the quietly she walked out ...

— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... clear enough, if we think of actual examples. In an actual landscape we see a long white road, lost suddenly on the hill-verge. That is the matter of one of the etchings of M. Alphonse Legros: only, in this etching, it is informed by an indwelling solemnity of expression, seen upon it or half-seen, within the limits of an exceptional moment, or caught from his own mood perhaps, but which he maintains as the very essence of the thing, throughout his work. Sometimes a momentary ...

— The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry • Walter Horatio Pater

... slant-wise, was a carved black oak writing-table, a long row of photographs stuck up against the back shelf of it. The walls were hung with a set of William Nicolson's prints, strong, dark, distinct, slightly sinister in effect; a fine etching of Jean Francois Millet's Gleaners; and, in noticeable contrast to this last, a mezzotint of Romney's picture of Lady Hamilton spinning. Upon the book-table were a silver ash-tray and cigarette-box. The air was unquestionably impregnated ...

— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet

... intimate one, but Tom's tricky imagination tormented him with one of still nearer personal association. He saw her in his own house, before his own fireside, a baby clinging to her skirt. Then, resolutely, he put the mental etching behind him. She loved his friend Beresford, a man out of a thousand, and of course he loved her. Had he not seen her go straight to his arms after her horrible ...

— Man Size • William MacLeod Raine

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