etching
[ech-ing]
- the act or process of making designs or pictures on a metal plate, glass, etc., by the corrosive action of an acid instead of by a burin.
- an impression, as on paper, taken from an etched plate.
- the design so produced.
- a metal plate bearing such a design.
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Origin of etching
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for etchings
Historical Examples
His industry may be inferred from the number of his engravings and etchings, of which he left not fewer than 1600.
Self-HelpSamuel Smiles
There are three kinds of prints, engravings, etchings, and mezzotintos.
John Baptist JacksonJacob Kainen
These etchings were published again in 1740 as Errores Ulyssis.
John Baptist JacksonJacob Kainen
As yet, power rather than beauty presided, unless in the etchings of Vandyck.
The Best Portraits in EngravingCharles Sumner
I think his etchings are as good as any line work the war has produced.
An Onlooker in France 1917-1919William Orpen
etching
- the art, act, or process of preparing etched surfaces or of printing designs from them
- an etched plate
- an impression made from an etched plate
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for etchings
etching
n.
1630s, action of the verb etch, also "the art of engraving;" 1760s as "a print, etc., made from an etched plate."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
etching
An artistic print made from a plate on which the artist has etched a design with acid. (Compare engraving.)
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.