Dictionary

sighten en · VERB

Etymology

From sight + -en.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:calico-printing, transitive) To add a fugitive colour to (a paste), to enable the printer to determine whether the figures are well-printed or not.
   • Annexed is a specimen of calico in this stage of the process, the mordant on which is red liquor, “sightened” with a little decoction of peach-wood or similar dye-stuff. 1849, Edward Andrew Parnell, Dyeing and Calico-printing, page 132:
   • The iron liquor should be sightened with logwood. 1830, Samuel Frederick Gray, The Chemistry of the Arts:

Forms

Deriveds

sightening