etch Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb make an etching of
    • He etched her image into the surface
  2. verb cause to stand out or be clearly defined or visible
    • a face etched with pain
    • the leafless branches etched against the sky
  3. verb carve or cut into a block used for printing or print from such a block
    engrave.
    • engrave a letter
  4. verb carve or cut a design or letters into
    engrave.
    • engrave the pen with the owner's name
  5. verb selectively dissolve the surface of (a semiconductor or printed circuit) with a solvent, laser, or stream of electrons

WordNet

Etch noun
Definitions
  1. A variant of Eddish. Obs. Mortimer.
Etch transitive verb
Etymology
D. etsen, G. ätzen to feed, corrode, etch. MHG. etzen, causative of ezzen to eat, G. essen . See Eat.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Etched ; present participle & verbal noun Etching
Definitions
  1. To produce, as figures or designs, on mental, glass, or the like, by means of lines or strokes eaten in or corroded by means of some strong acid. ✍ 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.
Etch intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To practice etching; to make etchings.

Webster 1913