[Appeared with composure, disposure, c. 1600; app. of English formation, from EXPOSE, by form-assoc. with enclose, enclosure, or other words in which the formation was etymological, repr. L. -sūra: see -URE.]
1. The action of exposing; the fact or state of being exposed.
a. The action of uncovering or leaving without shelter or defence; unsheltered or undefended condition. Also, the action of subjecting, the state or fact of being subjected, to any external influence.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 195. To weaken and discredit our exposure, How ranke soeuer rounded in with danger.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 324. The ball … notwithstanding its exposure … appears as bright as it did the first day it was screwed on.
1796. Burke, Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. VIII. 44. Whatever in his pedigree has been dulcified by an exposure to the influence of heaven.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xvi. (ed. 2), 304. So unusual an exposure of the globe of the eye.
1807. Med. Jrnl., XVII. 233. The eruption … appeared in consequence of her exposure to the variolous infection.
1844. T. J. Graham, Mod. Dom. Med., 579. Free exposure to cold is highly serviceable in small pox.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xv. 165. Days and nights of adventurous exposure and recurring disaster.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 66. After exposure, the acid is consequently found to be weaker.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 1. The exposure of the plate to light is continued for the requisite time.
b. The action of abandoning (an infant).
1863. Draper, Intell. Devel. Europe, v. (1865), 117. He recommends the exposure of deformed and sickly infants.
c. Presentation or disclosure to view; public exhibition, esp. of goods for sale.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 133. When we haue our naked Frailties hid, That suffer in exposure.
1854. Chamb. Jrnl., 5 Aug., 89/2. The exposure of ordinary goods in a store is not more open to the public than are the sales of slaves in Richmond.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. 514. Prynne and his fellow pamphleteers … listened with defiance to their sentence of exposure in the pillory.
1885. Law Rep. 14 Q. Bench Div. 251. Those Acts expressly prohibit the exposure for sale of goods in those streets.
d. The action of bringing to light (something discreditable); the unmasking or ‘showing up’ of an error, fraud, or evil, of an impostor or secret offender.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, I. II. v. 120. By this unfortunate exposure, Mr. Felix Lorraine was obliged to give in a match … with … Miss Mexico.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 127. The exposure of Mahomet would have been counted a glorification of the rival creed.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., VI. lxxii. 298. The exposure of the forgery makes a dramatic scene.
2. concr. † a. An exposed or unprotected point (obs.). b. A surface laid open to view, or to the operation of any agency.
1611. Chapman, Iliad, VII. 62/97. If he, with home-thrust iron can reach, th’exposure of my life.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 73. The sea … offers a vast exposure of salt water to the heat of the sun. Ibid., xvii. 289. Below these, come the Thanet beds, of which good exposures may be seen at Herne Bay.
1888. Dawson, Geol. Hist. Plants, 65. Specimens obtained from the rich exposures at Gaspé Bay.
3. The manner or degree in which anything is exposed; esp. situation with respect to sun and wind; ‘aspect’ with regard to the quarter of the heavens.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 202. Transplant Sampier to some very warm Exposure, as under a South-Wall. Ibid., 229. [The Green-house] being plac’d at the most advantageous Exposure to the Sun.
1710. London & Wise, Compl. Gard. (1719), 175. The Fruits of the Northern Exposure ripen last of all.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 55. This Lighthouse proves the practicability of a similar erection in any like exposure in the known world.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 514. The shoots might measure more than two and a half feet, in similar exposures.
1873. Tristram, Moab, xiii. 237. Scarped rocks … far down the southern exposure.
