1. gen. (Better written as two words.) A plate of copper; also collect.
1665. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 306. Silk in bales and boxes of copper-plate.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., xii. § 6 (1681), 246. Then take a Copper-plate, about the size of an ordinary Trencher-plate.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 172. The letters are of gold, and set in a copper-plate.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), III. 379. They are composed of thin lacquered copper-plates.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Copper-plates, the plates of amalgamated copper over which the auriferous ore is allowed to flow … and upon which the gold is caught as amalgam.
2. spec. A polished plate of copper on which a design is engraved or etched for printing.
1668. Excellency of Pen & Pencil, 55. Copper plates ready polished do often come from Holland.
1685. Petty, Last Will, p. vii. I have … the copper-plates for the maps of Ireland.
1730. Southall, Buggs, Pref. p. x. He not only forwarded the Impression, but directed and order’d the Copper-plate.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 770. The copperplate is prepared, and the ground laid upon it in the same manner as for etching.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., x. 66. Impressions from the same block, or the same copper-plate.
3. A print or impression from such a plate.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, G iij b. Untill a large worke (with Copper Plates) shall have had time to be put forth.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), III. 174. Copper-plates of their paintings … published by various authors.
1840. Thackeray, G. Cruikshank (1869), 297. A couple of numbers, containing about a score of copperplates.
4. collect. Copperplate engraving or printing.
1817. Keatinge, Trav., II. 82. What ideas copper-plate supplies are yet more inadequate.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1827), 161. The Th was there as legible as copper-plate.
Mod. colloq. His writing is like copper-plate.
5. attrib. (Better as one word.)
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., I. 525. The earliest specimens of copper-plate printing.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Copper-plate Maker, a workman who shapes, smooths, and prepares metal plates for engraving. Ibid., Copper-plate Press, a roller press for striking off impressions on paper from a metal plate.
1878. Thurston, Hist. Steam-Engine, 33. A copperplate engraving.
