Other forms: incised, incising, incises
To incise is to cut a design into a hard surface. Incise the stone, incised lettering, incise a pattern.
It means cutting into rather than through, and the mark stays — incised lettering on a monument outlasts anything painted on. In surgery an incision is a deliberate cut. Note that the Latin means to cut into, from caedere, to cut, the same root as concise and decide.
1verbinciseTo cut a design into a hard surface.
“The craftsman incised a pattern of leaves into the stone with a fine chisel.”
incise is a cutting into.
Latin incidere is in plus caedere, to cut. Concise, decide and scissors come from the same cutting.
Proto-Indo-European
*kh₂eyd-
Middle French
inciser
English, today
incise
From Middle French inciser.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA