soft ground

noun

an etching ground usually mixed with tallow.Compare hard ground.
a technique of etching in which a design is drawn on paper placed on a plate covered with a soft ground, resulting in a granular effect resembling pencil, chalk, or crayon.

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a granular metamorphic rock.
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Words nearby soft ground

soft drug, soft focus, soft fruit, soft furnishings, soft goods, soft ground, soft hail, soft hyphen, soft in the head, soft iron, soft job
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for soft ground

  • The plates were engraved by himself in soft-ground etching, such as Prout had used, from drawings he had made in 1846 and 1848.

    The Life of John Ruskin|W. G. Collingwood

  • The “manière de crayon,” as practised by Demarteau and others, differs materially from soft-ground etching.

    A Treatise on Etching|Maxime Lalanne

  • Numerous drawing copies for students were produced by him by means of soft-ground etching.

    Masters of Water-Colour Painting|H. M. Cundall

  • Soft-ground etchings, the biting of which is quite shallow, must be steel-faced after two to three hundred impressions.

    A Treatise on Etching|Maxime Lalanne