silvering

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The coating of glass or another surface with a thin film of silver or a similar metal, especially to make a mirror.

   The silvering of large telescope mirrors requires an extremely even coat.

   Modern factories have largely automated the silvering once done by hand.

   Similarplating

   Note

   A mirror-maker's noun with a built-in ambiguity: the same word names the work and what the work leaves behind. Followed by of, it usually means the act (the silvering of a telescope mirror). With a possessive, or behind the glass, it usually means the coating itself (the mirror's silvering has flaked). The metal need not be silver at all, since any similar metal laid down to reflect counts.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The silver that forms the reflective coating on a mirror or similar surface.

   Over the years the silvering behind the antique mirror tarnished and flaked.

   Restorers carefully removed the damaged silvering before applying a new coat.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of silver.

   She is silvering the lens to improve its reflectivity.

   Silvering the dome required scaffolding and several assistants.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb silver, and those uses split by whether there is an object. With one, it describes craft: silvering a lens, a dome, or a spoon polished until it shines. Without one, it describes a change of color, usually with age, as in hair silvering at the temples. As a gerund it sits close to the coating process, though only the noun takes a plural, silverings.

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