▪ I. shading, vbl. n.
(ˈʃeɪdɪŋ)
[f. shade v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of shade v.1 in various senses.
1. Protection from light or heat.
| 1611 Cotgr., Ombragement, a shading or shadowing. 1821 Scott Kenilw. ii, I thought I might take the privilege of an old comrade to ride across through the trees, both for shading..and for avoiding of dust. 1858 Glenny Everyday Bk. 210/1 Attention to the watering and shading is all that is required for the established plants. |
2. A foreshadowing, adumbration.
| 1850 Wordsw. Prel. iv. 248 Whatever shadings of mortality,..Had come among these objects heretofore. |
3. a. Delineation of shade; a marking or colouring resembling this.
| 1663 Gerbier Counsel 85 Painting..upon flat moulding, and set off with shading. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Young Women (1767) I. vi. 253 The business of shading with the needle is now..seldom thought of but at school. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. iv, Gilt letters and dark shading. 1882 Morris Hopes & Fears for Art iv. (1903) 148 Gradation, which in more naturalistic work is got by shading. |
| fig. 1896 Mrs. Caffyn Quaker Grandmother 254, I fear the finer shading was entirely omitted in the making of me. |
b. Mus. The imparting of ‘light and shade’.
| 1881 Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 331 That expression..was obtained..by the much more delicate shading of various transpositions of consonant chords. |
4. a. A minute variation or difference (of a colour, hence of a quality, species, etc.).
| 1775 Ash, Shading, the different gradation of colours. 1858 Sears Athan. xix. 168 The seven colors and their shadings. 1863 Dana Man. Geol. 602 Appearances suggesting the idea of such shadings among species are..rare. |
b. shading-off: decrease in the intensity of a colour, or its passage into some other, by imperceptible gradations; also fig. of a quality, species, or the like.
| 1858 Mallet in Rep. Brit. Assoc. i. 60 The shading-off or evanescence of tint. 1885 Manch. Exam. 6 Mar. 5/4 In Egypt..there is no gradual shading off from fertile into waste ground. 1892 Spectator 16 Jan. 77/2 The University..lends its influence even to the shading-off of one political class into another. |
c. A spurious variation in brightness over parts of a televised image. Freq. attrib.
| 1940 D. G. Fink Princ. Television Engin. ix. 414 The remaining item of equipment necessary to produce a composite video signal of adequate quality is the shading correction generator required with camera tubes of the iconoscope (storage-mosaic) type. 1961 G. Millerson Technique Television Production iii. 50 Shading is reduced manually, by adjusting electronic correction circuits. 1969 G. L. Hansen Introd. Solid-State Television Systems xi. 269 If the red, green, and blue channels were called upon to reproduce a white scene, the unbalance caused by the corner shading in the red channel would produce a red hue in the corner. Ibid., Shading generators..supply waveforms to the cathodes of the camera tubes to offset the variations that are present because of shading irregularities. |
5. A toning-down, qualifying (of a statement).
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy xiii, The circumlocutions, shadings, softenings, and periphrasis, which usually accompany explanations betwixt persons of different sexes in the higher orders of society. |
▪ II. shading, ppl. a.
(ˈʃeɪdɪŋ)
[f. shade v.1 + -ing2.]
That shades, in various senses of the vb.
1. Affording protection from heat or light.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. x. ¶7 (1912) 63 Grasse (which plentifully grewe, brought up under the care of those wel shading trees). 1671 Milton P.R. iii. 221 A shelter and a kind of shading cool Interposition, as a summers cloud. c 1709 Prior First Hymn of Callim. 15 Wild Lycæus, black with shading Pines. 1910 Westm. Gaz. 19 Feb. 14/2 If such a shading hood were applied at all times..the clearness of the photograph taken would be very much clearer. |
† 2. Delineating shade. Obs. rare—1.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 509 Thick with sparkling orient Gemmes The Portal shon, inimitable on Earth By Model, or by shading Pencil drawn. |