aquatint
Americannoun
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a process imitating the broad flat tints of ink or wash drawings by etching a microscopic crackle on the copperplate intended for printing.
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an etching made by this process.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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a technique of etching copper with acid to produce an effect resembling the flat tones of wash or watercolour. The tone or tint is obtained by acid (aqua) biting through the pores of a ground that only partially protects the copper
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an etching made in this way
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of aquatint
1775–85; variant of aqua-tinta < Italian acqua tinta literally, tinted water. See aqua, tint
Vocabulary lists containing aquatint
Elements of the Universe: Aqua ("Water")
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"The Deep," Vocabulary from the short story
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The composition was inspired by Francisco de Goya’s renowned, politically trenchant aquatint, “The sleep of reason produces monsters.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 12, 2022
The first thing you see when the curtain goes up on “Plaza Suite” is an aquatint image of that grand hotel in its antique glory.
From New York Times • Mar. 28, 2022
The picture, included in the exhibition “Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya,” utilizes etching and aquatint techniques, but it owes its drama to the latter, which produces areas of tone rather than line.
From Washington Post • Jan. 13, 2022
The artist’s aquatint from the late 18th-century is among the most familiar images in this museum survey of comic drawings, prints and works on paper.
From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2018
Yes, it grieves me—though I should be bored if I had to be stately, I think.—Isn't it beautiful in this light, like an eighteenth-century aquatint?
From Touch and Go by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
