Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BLANCH'ING, ppr.

Whitening. In coinage, the operation of giving brightness to pieces of silver, by heating them on a peel, and afterwards boiling them successively in two pans of copper, with aqua fortis, common salt, and tartar of Montpelier; then draining off the water in a sieve: sand and fresh water are then thrown over them, and when dry, they are rubbed with a towel. – Encyc. The covering of iron plates with a thin coat of tin is also called blanching. – Encyc. Blanch-ferm, or blank farm, in ancient law, a white farm, was one, where the rent was paid in silver, not in cattle. – Encyc. Blanch-holding, in law, a tenure by which the tenant is bound to pay only an elusory yearly duty to his superior, as an acknowledgment to his right. – Encyc.