Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ETCH, v.t. [G. etzen, D. etsen, to eat. See Eat.]

1. To make prints on copper-plate by means of lines or strokes first drawn, and then eaten or corroded by nitric acid. The plate is first covered with a proper varnish or ground, which is capable of resisting the acid, and the ground is then scored or scratched by a needle or similar instrument, in the places where the hatchings or engravings are intended to be; the plate is then covered with nitric acid, which corrodes or eats the metal in the lines thus laid bare. Encyc.
2. To sketch; to delineate. [Not in use.] Locke.