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.