[Fr., pa. pple. of clicher, var. of cliquer to click, applied by die-sinkers to the striking of melted lead in order to obtain a proof or cast: see Littré.]
1. The French name for a stereotype block; a cast or ‘dab’; applied esp. to a metal stereotype of a wood-engraving used to print from.
Originally, a cast obtained by letting a matrix fall face downward upon a surface of molten metal on the point of cooling, called in English type-foundries ‘dabbing.’
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xi. (ed. 3), 95. A process for copying, called in France clichée.
1850. Art Jrnl., 219. Cliché is also applied to the French stereotype casts from woodcuts.
1868. C. Darwin, in Life (1887), III. 87. Engelmann has … offered me clichés of the woodcuts.
2. Extended to the negative in photography. (Mod. Dicts.)
