drypoint (dripoint)

and a. I. n. 1. A steel instrument or etching-needle with a sharp point, used by etchers to cut delicate lines on copperplates from which the etching-ground has been removed. The bur raised by the cutting of the metal is either left standing on one side of the furrow to catch the printing-ink and produce a mezzotint effect of more or le deep tone, or removed with the burnisher so that the line may yield a clean impre ion. Drypta (drip'tä), n. [NL. (Fabric i us, 1801), irreg.