embossing

Verb

emboss (third-person singular simple present embosses, present participle embossing, simple past and past participle embossed)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to stick out or swell; to extrude; also, to cause (someone or something) to be covered in swellings.
   • VVhen God, vvhoſe vvords more in a moment can, / Then in an Age the proudeſt ſtrength of Man, / Had ſeuered the Floods, leuell'd the Fields, / Embas't the Valleys, and emboſt the Hils; […]1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His First Week, or Birth of the World: […].] The Third Daie of the First Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and...
2. (transitive) To make (a design on a coin, an ornament on an object, etc.) stand out from a surface.
   • [S]o glorious vvas her Throne, / In vvhich himſelfe to ſit great Neptune had been knovvn; / […] / No Fiſh in this vvide vvaſte but vvith exceeding coſt / VVas there in Antique vvorke moſt curiouſly imboſt.1612, Michael Drayton, “The Fift Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great...
3. (transitive) To represent (a subject) on an object in relief; also, of a design or subject: to stand out on (an object) in relief.
   • [R]ich embroideries by rare Art emboſt: […]1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Adam. […].] The Handi-crafts. The IIII. Part of the I. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His...
4. (transitive) To decorate or mark (something) with a design or symbol in relief.
   • The papers weren’t official until the seal had been embossed on them.
5. (transitive) To decorate (something) with bosses (“ornamental convex protuberances”); to boss; hence, to decorate (something) richly.
   • I wonne her with a gyrdle of gelt, / Emboſt with buegle about the belt.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 4, verso
6. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (something) to be prominent or stand out.
   • [T]he triumph of general fraternity vvas but the most ſignalized by the total vvant of particular claims in that caſe; and by poſtponing all ſuch claims, in a caſe vvhere they really exiſted, vvhere they ſtood emboſſed, and in a manner forced themſelves on the vievv of common ſhort-ſighted...1797, Edmund Burke, “Letter III.”, in A Third Letter to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: […] F[rancis] and C[harles]...

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