plating

Pluralplatings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A thin layer of one metal applied over the surface of another.

   The jeweler applied a thin silver plating to the brass cutlery.

   Corrosion appeared once the nickel plating wore through.

   Similarcoating, coat, layer, veneer, finish

   Note

   The noun is older than the modern verb suggests. It comes from Old English platung, meaning a plate or thin piece of metal. Today the coating metal usually stands in front of it: silver plating, nickel plating, gold plating. Think of a film laid over a base metal, unlike the armor sense, where whole plates are fixed on.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The arrangement and presentation of food on a plate, ready to be served.

   Restaurant critics often praise the plating as much as the flavors.

   She spent extra minutes on the plating so each dessert looked perfect.

   Similarpresentation, arrangement

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A protective covering or armor made of metal plates.

   Engineers reinforced the tank's plating to withstand heavier rounds.

   Rust had eaten through the hull's plating in several places.

   Similararmor, sheathing, cladding

   Note

   Here the plates are structural, the outer skin of a hull or a vehicle. J. Bernard Walker, writing of the Titanic in 1912, called it "a relatively thin skin of plating, an inch or so in thickness." The same word now armors the enemies of Halo 3. It is usually a mass noun: you speak of the hull's plating, not its platings.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of plate.

   The factory is plating each component to prevent corrosion.

   Plating the trophies in bronze took most of the afternoon.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every verb sense of plate. A factory plating parts in nickel, a chef plating a dessert, a team plating a run, an agent plating a ticket on an airline, and a smith beating metal into sheets all use it. As a gerund it sits close to the nouns: plating the dish names the action, while the finished presentation names its result.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act of determining where a postage stamp was positioned on its original printing sheet.

   Careful plating revealed that the two stamps came from adjacent positions.

   Experts rely on tiny printing flaws for the plating of classic issues.

   Note

   A collector's term for a kind of detective work: matching a loose stamp to the exact spot it occupied on its printing sheet. Tiny flaws in the printing are the usual clues. It has nothing to do with metal coating. The word takes an of-phrase for what is being studied, as in the plating of classic issues.

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