inking

English

Verb

inking

1. present participle and gerund of ink

Noun

inking (countable and uncountable, plural inkings)

1. An application of ink.
   • 1900, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 175:

     In a rotary printing-machine, a cylinder carrying a single relief design, means for imparting successive complete inkings to said design […]

2. Work done by an inker, one kind of commercial artist
3. Inputting text or drawings into a computer, tablet, or similar apparatus using a stylus.
4. A defensive activity where ink is released by squids, cuttlefish, etc.
   • 2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian‎:

     Mucus-rich ink is supposedly a dangerous or annoying substance that interferes with fish gills and some cephalopods react adversely to their own inkings in small containers or in the lab. The blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlaena lunulata has tetrodotoxin, the deadly toxin it also releases in a bite, in their ink but the concentrations and effect in inking are not known.