▪ I. tanning, vbl. n.
(ˈtænɪŋ)
[f. tan v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb tan; an instance of this.
| 1481 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 332 As in tannyng, coryyng, cuttyng, or sowyng. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. 2 A tanner for euyll tannyng of lether. 1598 Florio, Adustione,..a tanning in the sunne. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 85 The tanning of sails in the royal navy has been tried. 1863 Sir G. G. Scott Glean. Westm. Abb. (ed. 2) 65 Witnessing the ‘tanning’ of the rascal's ‘hide’. 1899 C. F. Townsend Chem. for Photographers (ed. 2) iv. 75 The ‘tanning’ of the gelatin or rendering it insoluble. 1935 Discovery July 190/1 Wash-out gelatine relief by development tanning, used for making matrices for obtaining ‘imbibition’. 1944 J. S. Huxley On living in Revolution 70 Lamarckism..the inheritance of characters acquired by an individual as a result of changes in the environment, like tanning due to sun. 1980 B. H. Carroll et al. Introd. Photogr. Theory xi. 227 Tanning development involves the formation of an image in the form of insolubilized gelatin. |
| attrib. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Tan, the bark of the oak, chopped, and ground, by a tanning-mill, into a coarse powder. 1887 J. E. Taylor Tourist's Guide Suffolk 61 Combs..is distant 1 m., well known for the extensive tanning-works of Messrs. Webb. 1963 Listener 17 Jan. 138/1 From winter resort patronized by the pre-1914 crowned heads of Europe to tanning-factory for bikini-clad campers. |
▪ II. ˈtanning, ppl. a.
[-ing2.]
a. That tans.
| a 1717 Parnell Health 35 Her hardy face repels the tanning wind. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales II. 75 If our..tanning barks, and bark extracts, do not continue to pay. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem. III. xi. 672 Sewing up the hide, filling it with the tanning infusion. |
b. spec. in Photogr. Cf. tan v. 4.
| 1930 G. E. Brown Clerc's Photography xxviii. 224/2 The localized tanning of the gelatine gives rise to unequal contractions of the film during drying... Tanning developers are not used in astronomical work. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. X. 686/2 Most fixing solutions also contain a tanning or hardening agent which unites with the gelatin of the emulsion layer, increases its melting-point and reduces its swelling in water. 1973 D. A. Spencer Focal Dict. Photogr. Technol. 617 A typical tanning developer contains little if any sulphite. |