wood engraving

noun

1

: a relief printing surface consisting of a wooden block with a usually pictorial design cut in the end grain

2

: a print from a wood engraving

Examples of wood engraving in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Said there was a wood engraving by the artist Paul L. Kershaw in the bathroom showing a black-and-white picture of the Cairngorms and a bite of Shepherd’s words. —Ailsa Ross, Longreads, 4 Apr. 2023

Famed illustrator Thomas Nast depicted some of them in a Harper's Weekly wood engraving, feeding, nursing and even carrying the wounded and bedraggled soldiers on their backs. —Karl Kusserow, CNN, 3 May 2021

If his anatomy was a bit Gumbyish and his faces were little more than masks, his drawings had enough panache to survive the ossifying translation into wood engraving. —Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 6 Apr. 2022

There’s a little wood engraving by Edward Gordon Craig. —Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2019

There are oil paintings, wood engravings, drawings, maps, costumes and photographs, but the show is especially rich in Homer’s ravishing watercolors. —Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2019

An 1868 wood engraving of Harriet Tubman by John Darby shows Tubman dressed as a scout for the Union Army holding a large rifle with her hands curiously placed over the barrel of the gun. —Kim Sajet, Smithsonian, 23 Mar. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1816, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

wood engraving

noun

1

: a printing surface consisting of a design cut into a block of wood

2

: a print from a wood engraving