expose
Formsexposes, exposing, exposed
- 1To reveal or uncover something previously hidden, bringing it to public attention.
Investigators expose fraud by tracing the money through every account.
The documentary exposed widespread abuse in the industry.
Similarreveal, uncover, unmask, disclose
Note
The sense closest to the word's origin: Middle French exposer, "to lay open, set forth," from Latin expōnō, crossed with poser, "to lay, place." Expound grew from the same Latin verb, so one word lays a thing open and the other sets it out in words. With to, the meaning softens. Being exposed to offensive content means meeting it, not unmasking it.
- 2To subject a person, animal, or material to a dangerous substance or stress in order to test its reaction or resistance.
Researchers expose volunteers to common allergens to measure their immune response.
The team exposed the coating to intense heat to check its durability.
Similarsubject
- 3To subject photographic film to light so that an image is recorded.
Old cameras expose a strip of film one frame at a time.
He exposed several plates before the light faded.
- 4To make a function, data, or feature available to other parts of a program or to other programs.
Well-designed modules expose a clear interface and hide their internal details.
The service exposed its database directly, creating a security risk.
Oppositehide
Note
Software design uses the word as half of a pair whose other half is hide. Robert C. Martin's More C++ Gems (2000) states the object-oriented rule plainly: hide the structure of the data, and expose only functionality. What a module exposes is usually an interface or a set of services. What stays hidden is the implementation. Exposing internals directly is the case designers try to avoid.
- 5To abandon someone, especially an unwanted infant, by leaving them in the wilderness.
Desperate families would sometimes expose newborns they could not raise, leaving them beyond the city walls.
Legend says the shepherd found the twins their mother had exposed on the hillside.
Similarabandon
Note
Here the Latin idea of setting something out survives literally, the story told under the revealing sense: the child is put out, laid open to the elements, and left. Fridtjof Nansen's Eskimo Life (1893) sets "exposing the child" beside throwing it into the sea, in the level tone of an ethnographer's report. The verb names the act without judging it.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Middle French exposer ("to lay open, set forth"), from Latin expōnō ("set forth"), with influence from poser ("to lay, place"). It is a doublet of expone and expound, all from the same Latin term.