exposing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of expose.

   By exposing the fraud, she put her own career at risk.

   The documentary is exposing the dangerous conditions inside the factory.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every meaning of expose, so its object decides the reading. Exposing a fraud reveals it, and exposing film records an image. In programming, exposing a function makes it available to other code, and exposing someone to nicotine tests or risks a reaction. With no object and a very in front, it has become the adjective instead: a very exposing role.

   She spent the afternoon exposing rolls of film in the desert light.

   The library avoids exposing its internal functions to other programs.

2. 2
   adjective

   Tending to bring about greater exposure, whether of something hidden or of someone left unprotected.

   The witness gave an unusually exposing account of the company's practices.

   Standing on the exposing ridge, the climbers had no shelter from the storm.

   Similarrevealing

   Note

   The adjective works in two settings, the elements and the feelings. Appleton's Illustrated Hand-book of American Travel (1861) calls duck-shooting "one of the most exposing to cold and wet," with to naming the hazard. David Baume and Peter Kahn (2004) drop the complement: leading colleagues "can feel very exposing." Either way it is gradable, so very, more and most exposing are all natural.

   Speaking about her illness in front of the whole team felt very exposing.

   The open moor is more exposing to wind and rain than the sheltered valley.

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