emboss
Americanverb (used with object)
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to raise or represent (surface designs) in relief.
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to decorate (a surface) with raised ornament.
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Metalworking. to raise a design on (a blank) with dies of similar pattern, one the negative of the other.
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to cause to bulge out; make protuberant.
verb
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to mould or carve (a decoration or design) on (a surface) so that it is raised above the surface in low relief
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to cause to bulge; make protrude
Other Word Forms
- embossable adjective
- embosser noun
- embossment noun
- unembossed adjective
Etymology
Origin of emboss
1350–1400; Middle English embosen < Middle French embocer, equivalent to em- em- 1 + boce boss 2
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 coin, designed by east London artist and LGBTQ+ activist Dominique Holmes, uses state-of-the-art printing technology to emboss it with the colours of the Pride progress flag.
From Reuters • May 18, 2022
It happens on the third day, after our bookbinding class, having spent the morning deep in concentration learning how to Coptic-stitch and emboss our own leather journal.
From The Guardian • Apr. 28, 2019
In the real world, opportunities for selling and recruiting dry up very quickly, no matter how many inspirational seminars you attend and business cards you emboss.
From Slate • Jul. 20, 2016
Beneath the obvious mowing patterns, I can make out the faint paths where the grounds crew cuts it foul pole to foul pole, so as not to emboss the outfield with game-changing ridges.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 3, 2015
He would do his best to inscribe a circle and then emboss it with perfectly upright hair, as though the person in question had just been perusing the most stirring of penny-dreadfuls.
From The Prairie Child by Ward. E. F. (Edmund Franklin)
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.
