exposure
(ɛkˈspəʊʒjʊə(r))
[Appeared with composure, disposure, c 1600; app. of English formation, from expose n.1, by form-assoc. with enclose, enclosure, or other words in which the formation was etymological, repr. L. -sūra: see -ure.]
1. The action of exposing; the fact or state of being exposed. a. The action of uncovering or leaving without shelter or defence; unsheltered or undefended condition. Also, the action of subjecting, the state or fact of being subjected, to any external influence.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 195 To weaken and discredit our exposure, How ranke soeuer rounded in with danger. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §324 The ball..notwithstanding its exposure..appears as bright as it did the first day it was screwed on. 1796 Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 44 Whatever in his pedigree has been dulcified by an exposure to the influence of heaven. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xvi. (ed. 2) 304 So unusual an exposure of the globe of the eye. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 233 The eruption..appeared in consequence of her exposure to the variolous infection. 1844 T. J. Graham Mod. Dom. Med. 579 Free exposure to cold is highly serviceable in small pox. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xv. 165 Days and nights of adventurous exposure and recurring disaster. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 66 After exposure, the acid is found to be weaker. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 1 The exposure of the plate to light is continued for the requisite time. |
b. The action of abandoning (an infant).
| 1863 Draper Intell. Devel. Europe v. (1865) 117 He recommends the exposure of deformed and sickly infants. |
c. Presentation or disclosure to view; public exhibition, esp. of goods for sale.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 133 When we haue our naked Frailties hid, That suffer in exposure. 1853 Chamb. Jrnl. Oct., The exposure of ordinary goods in a store is not more open to the public than are the sales of slaves in Richmond. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. 514 Prynne and his fellow pamphleteers..listened with defiance to their sentence of exposure in the pillory. 1885 Law Rep. 14 Q. Bench Div. 251 Those Acts expressly prohibit the exposure for sale of goods in those streets. |
d. The action of bringing to light (something discreditable); the unmasking or ‘showing up’ of an error, fraud, or evil, of an impostor or secret offender.
| 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. v, By this unfortunate exposure..Lorraine was obliged to give in a match..with..Miss Mexico. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 127 The exposure of Mahomet would have been counted a glorification of the rival creed. 1873 Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxxii. 298 The exposure of the forgery makes a dramatic scene. |
e. Photogr. The exposing of a sensitized surface to the action of actinic rays (see expose v. 5 c); also, the time occupied by this action. Also attrib., as exposure meter, a device that indicates the correct time to allow a film, etc., to be exposed.
| 1839 Visitor 479/1 Living objects, if they remain motionless during the short periods of exposure, are given with perfect fidelity. 1847 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CXXXVII. 256 After ten seconds of exposure I put the prepared plate in the mercury box. 1878 W. Abney Treat. Photogr. xxxi. 246 As regards the exposure to be given to a picture. 1891 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. XXII. 285/2 He would like to know whether these exposure meters would give the correct exposures. 1892 [see background n. 1 b]. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 2 Sept. 14/2 It is little use for the amateur to use exposure tables to guide him as to the correct exposures to be given under certain conditions. 1918 Photo-Miniature Mar. (Glossary), Exposure indicator, a device attached to plate-holders to show that the shutter has been withdrawn and re-inserted, i.e., exposure of plate. 1919 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. Alm. 244 The taking of a photograph is known as an exposure, e.g., ‘I made 6 exposures’; and the term is also used for the time occupied, e.g., ‘6 seconds exposure’. 1926 [see actinometer 2]. 1940 A. L. M. Sowerby Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 15) 281 Exposure calculators are identical in principle with exposure tables... The calculator-mechanism is simply a substitute for the more usual addition of a series of numbers. 1958 Oxf. Mail 19 May 6/4 An exposure meter..shows how much light is falling on the subject you want to photograph, and the exposure required. |
f. indecent exposure, the action of publicly exposing one's body in an indecent manner. Also fig.
| 1851 Act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 100 §29 Any public and indecent Exposure of the Person... It shall be lawful for the Court to sentence the Offender to be imprisoned. 1872 Wharton Law Lex. (ed. 5) 470/2 Indecent exposure, an indictable offence at common law. 1928 G. B. Shaw Platform & Pulpit (1962) 188 Disgraceful conduct in the parks, indecent exposure. 1958 J. Cannan And be a Villain iii. 49 He took himself off to deal with a case of indecent exposure on the tow-path. 1959 N. Marsh Singing in Shrouds iv. 67 Have you witnessed his weekly exhibitions of indecent exposure on the television? 1970 Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 6 Dec. 24/2 One hard-working executive would have become the only male in an office containing 100 women, if Ian Withers had not discovered that the man had convictions for indecent exposure. |
g. Mountaineering. (See quots.)
| 1935 D. Pilley Climbing Days i. 17 You really do feel suspended over the valley with nothing but air below. ‘Exposure’, in other words, to use the climbing technicality, is continuous. 1940 F. Smythe Adv. Mountaineer vii. 102 Exposure..is simply the height and nature of the drop beneath the climber. 1957 R. G. Collomb Dict. Mountaineering 66 Exposure, a climber's awareness or feeling of height; his appreciation of the open position on a steep cliff or mountain... The effect of exposure is a temporary set-back or nervousness. |
h. The action of bringing to public notice; the condition of being exposed to the attention of the general public, publicity. Now used esp. of publicity achieved through broadcasting or advertising. orig. U.S.
| 1956 Post-Dispatch (St. Louis) 23 Aug. 2f/1 Years ago a performer was hired for a performance... Now it's exposure. 1957 Variety 5 June 1/4 Nikita Krushchev's..interview on CBS-TV's ‘Face the Nation’ will get wide exposure. 1966 Wall St. Jrnl. 25 July 1 All..are designed to get broadcast ‘exposure’ for records that otherwise might be drowned in the unending torrent of new releases. 1971 Radio Times 19 Aug. 47/2 People who're doing something worthwhile but aren't getting any exposure for it. 1979 D. Halberstam Powers that Be (1980) ii. vii. 320 Television was giving him the access and exposure that the party machinery would have loved to deny him. 1980 Oxford Star 23 Oct. 22/1 Zanussi..have until now not attained full exposure in this country because they've concentrated mainly on manufacturing goods to be sold under such labels as Tricity, Hotpoint and Hoover. 1986 Times 2 Oct. 7/1 By the time California voters go to the polls..the issue will have received a remarkable amount of exposure. |
2. concr. † a. An exposed or unprotected point (obs.). b. A surface laid open to view, or to the operation of any agency.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad vii. 62 If he with home-thrust iron can reach the exposure of my life. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 73 The sea..offers a vast exposure of salt water to the heat of the sun. Ibid. xvii. 289 Below these come the Thanet beds of which good exposures may be seen at Herne Bay. 1888 Dawson Geol. Hist. Plants 65 Specimens obtained from the rich exposures at Gaspé Bay. |
3. The manner or degree in which anything is exposed; esp. situation with respect to sun and wind; ‘aspect’ with regard to the quarter of the heavens.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 202 Transplant Sampier to some very warm Exposure, as under a South-Wall. Ibid. 229 [The Green-house] being plac'd at the most advantageous Exposure to the Sun. 1710 London & Wise Compl. Gard. (1719) 175 The Fruits of the Northern Exposure ripen last of all. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §55 This Lighthouse proves the practicability of a similar erection in any like exposure in the known world. 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 514 The shoots might measure more than two and a half feet, in similar exposures. 1873 Tristram Moab xiii. 237 Scarped rocks..far down the southern exposure. |
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[1.] [e.] For def. read: Photogr. The exposing of a photosensitive surface to the action of light or other electromagnetic radiation. Hence, (a) the extent to which this occurs during the taking of a photograph; (b) the combination of shutter speed and aperture to be used on such an occasion; (c) the time during which the surface is exposed (in full exposure time). Also, spec. each of the sections of a film which may be separately exposed, and attrib. in exposure meter, a device that indicates the correct exposure time. (Further examples.)
| 1890 Hurter & Driffield in Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry 31 May 464/2 The product of intensity of light and time, i.e., the ‘exposure’. 1894 [see snap n. 9 b]. 1933 Discovery Feb. 59/2 Roll films are used, each roll containing one hundred exposures. 1934 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVIII. 545 Rapid determination of exposure time in reference to time of year, state of sky, colour of subject. 1937 Auden & MacNeice Lett. from Iceland 21 A bunch of photographs, Some out of focus, some with wrong exposures. 1979 Sci. Amer. June 143/3 As he photographed the color chart he first set his camera at the correct exposure (f-stop and exposure speed) for the lighting conditions. 1984 Which? July 322/2 You can get extremely short exposures when using an automatic..flash unit for taking close-up subjects. |
4. a. The extent to which an insurance company is at risk from any particular contingency; orig. and chiefly (the risk of) the spread of fire to or from adjoining or adjacent property. In quot. 1867, the property itself.
| 1867 Aetna Guide to Fire Insurance (Aetna Insurance Co.) 338 (Gloss.), Exposures, adjacent combustible buildings or matter, which if ignited would endanger the subject in question. 1912 H. M. Hess in H. P. Dunham Business of Insurance I. v. 72 The liability of fire extending beyond the bounds of the buildings in which it starts to other buildings constitutes that element of fire hazard, which underwriters call Exposure. 1926 E. R. Hardy Making of Fire Insurance Rate xxxiv. 229 There are three forms of exposure known as radiated, absorbed and transmitted. 1957 Clark & Gottfried Dict. Business & Finance 144/1 Exposure, in insurance, the condition of being open to loss from some particular hazard or contingency. Also..the amount of money..which is so exposed to loss. 1982 G. E. Rejda Princ. Insurance xxvii. 546/1 Exposure refers to the possibility that the insured building will be damaged or destroyed from a fire that starts in an adjacent building. |
b. Comm. More generally, the financial commitment of a bank or other company in any particular country, activity, or asset; the amount committed, or the risk associated with this.
| 1975 Dun's Rev. Jan. 33/2 Corporate dollars..are increasingly hard to come by. But in some cases it was also a question of exposure. 1981 Times 2 Apr. 21/1 National Westminster [Bank] has already agreed to increase its lending exposure. 1986 Accountancy Feb. 98/2 The balance of exposure at any time is the net amount of monetary assets and liabilities. |
5. Practical experience, esp. of a specified kind of work. orig. U.S.
| 1968 N.Y. Times 7 Apr. ix. 30w/7 The opportunities to be derived from the exposure offered by an initial assignment on a corporate auditing staff are..underestimated. 1975 Dun's Rev. Jan. 48/3 Women..will have to be given additional exposure in new jobs and duties..in order to provide the seasoning necessary for upward advancement. 1984 Weekend Australian 10/11 Nov. 2/6 (Advt.), Preference will be given to someone with extensive hotel experience in Australia at three or four star level and possibly with some overseas exposure. |
6. Comb., as exposure draft Accountancy, a draft accounting standard circulated publicly for comment.
| 1971 Accountant 21 Jan. 70/2 The second, and longer, of the two new *exposure drafts deals with Accounting for acquisitions and mergers. 1976 Daily Tel. 28 Aug. 14/7 The ‘exposure draft’..will be open for public comments for six months before an amended accounting standard is published and made mandatory. 1987 Financial Times 28 Mar. 4/1 The Accounting Standards Committee..intended to publish an exposure draft for a new accounting standard for off-balance-sheet financing at its meeting in June. |