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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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aquatintsimple
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aquatintssimple
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have aquatintedperfect
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has aquatintedperfect
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am aquatintingprogressive
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are aquatintingprogressive
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is aquatintingprogressive
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have been aquatintingperfect progressive
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has been aquatintingperfect progressive
Past
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aquatintedsimple
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had aquatintedperfect
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was aquatintingprogressive
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were aquatintingprogressive
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had been aquatintingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
In an 1803 etching and aquatint with watercolor by Thomas Daniell, we see Gangaram absorbed in sketching wall reliefs of Shiva and Parvati from a rock-cut cave at Ellora.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
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
But part of the excitement around aquatint was that it could mimic qualities of other artistic media: painterly brushstrokes, subtle ink tones, fluid watercolors.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2022
This process, as you see, is very accommodating; but it is too much like mezzotint or aquatint, and, furthermore, it can only be applied in flat tints, without modelling.
From A Treatise on Etching by Lalanne, Maxime
“Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas” opened in April at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with more than 100 works, including some of his most monumental paintings, along with drawings, woodcuts, etchings and aquatints.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
The show’s high points are “Six Bardos,” a suite of large aquatints from 2018 inspired by the six intervals between life and death in Buddhism.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
There are images of American plenty — Richard Diebenkorn’s vibrant West Coast aquatints, David Hockney’s Los Angeles swimming pool — and American achievement, such as Rauschenberg’s prints of the Apollo 11 moon mission.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2017
Two exhibitions within strolling distance provide access to an eye-popping 327 examples of Picasso’s etchings, aquatints, lithographs and linocuts.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2010
In each volume are one hundred aquatints after Claude.
From A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 2 of 3) Forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe by Various
H. Carpatio.—I have lately met with a large aquatinted engraving, bearing the following descriptive title: "Angliæ Regis Legati inspiciuntur Sponsam petentes Filiam Dionati Cornubiæ Regis pro Anglo Principe."
From Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850 by Various
He published works aquatinted by himself, including Westminster, which appeared in 1792.
From Masters of Water-Colour Painting by Holme, Geoffrey
Those pictures were very funny, and that aquatinting and the gay-colored plates very pleasant to witness; but if we could not read the poem in those days, could we digest it in this?
From John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character by Thackeray, William Makepeace
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.
