2. A design carried out by means of the above process; a
pattern on metal, glass, etc., produced by etching.
3. An impression on paper, parchment, or other material,
taken in ink from an etched plate.
{Etching figures} (Min.), markings produced on the face of a
crystal by the action of an appropriate solvent. They have
usually a definite form, and are important as revealing
the molecular structure.
{Etching needle}, a sharp-pointed steel instrument with which
lines are drawn in the ground or varnish in etching.
{Etching stitch} (Needlework), a stitch used outline
embroidery.
Note: The plate is first covered with varnish, or some other
ground capable of resisting the acid, and this is then
scored or scratched with a needle, or similar
instrument, so as to form the drawing; the plate is
then covered with acid, which corrodes the metal in the
lines thus laid bare.
2. To subject to etching; to draw upon and bite with acid, as
a plate of metal.
I was etching a plate at the beginning of 1875.
--Hamerton.
3. To sketch; to delineate. [R.]
There are many empty terms to be found in some
learned writes, to which they had recourse to etch
out their system. --Locke.