etch

/ɛt͡ʃ/

etch verb: to cut into a surface with an acid or other corrosive substance in order to make a pattern. Best known as a technique for creating printing plates, but also used for decoration on metal, and, in modern industry, to make circuit boards. Also the obsolete form of eddish.

Verb

etch (third-person singular simple present etches, present participle etching, simple past and past participle etched)

To cut into a surface with an acid or other corrosive substance in order to make a pattern. Best known as a technique for creating printing plates, but also used for decoration on metal, and, in modern industry, to make circuit boards.
To engrave a surface.
(figuratively) To make a lasting impression.
- The memory of 9/11 is etched into my mind.
- His sorrow was etched on his face.
To sketch; to delineate.
- There are many such empty terms to be found in some learned writers, to which they had recourse to etch out their system.a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC

Also used as

etch is also the obsolete form of eddish.

Examples of etch in a sentence

The thick-bedded dolostone's straticulate character was brought out as fine etched parallel grooves on the broken surfaces by weathering.
With the classic total-etch technique, both the enamel and dentin are etched with phosphoric acid.
Wilson had “etched herself indelibly on the consciousness of the New York balletgoing public.”

All 21 example sentences with etch

Forms of etch

third-person singular present	etches
present participle	etching
past participle	etched
past	etched

Past tense of etch: etched

Origin of etch

From Dutch etsen (“to etch”), from German ätzen (“to etch”), from Old High German azzon (“to cause to bite or feed”), from Proto-Germanic *atjaną, causative of *etaną (“to eat”) (whence also English eat).

Words formed from etch

Phrases with etch

Etch A Sketch

Words that rhyme with etch

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about etch

What does etch mean?: Etch means to cut into a surface with an acid or other corrosive substance in order to make a pattern. Best known as a technique for creating printing plates, but also used for decoration on metal, and, in modern industry, to make circuit boards.
What part of speech is etch?: Etch is a verb.
How do you pronounce etch?: Etch is pronounced /ɛt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of etch?: The past tense of etch is etched.

Words near etch in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: etch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-etch.wav.

Cite this entry: “etch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/etch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.