exposure

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or an instance of exposing, as:
2. n. An act of subjecting or an instance of being subjected to an action or an influence: their first exposure to big city life.
3. n. Appearance in public or in the mass media: an actor with much recent exposure in television.
4. n. Revelation, especially of crime or guilt: exposure of graft in county government.
5. n. The act of presenting a body part, especially the genitals, to view: indecent exposure.
6. n. The condition of being exposed, especially to severe weather or other forces of nature: was hospitalized for the effects of exposure.
7. n. A position in relation to climatic or weather conditions or points of the compass: Our house has a southern exposure.
8. n. The act of exposing sensitized photographic film or plate.
9. n. A photographic plate or a piece of film so exposed.
10. n. The amount of radiant energy needed to expose a photographic film.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of opening to view, laying bare, or revealing: as, the exposure of a vein of ore, or of a crime.
2. n. The state of being open or subject to some action or influence; a being placed in the way of something, as observation, attack, etc.: as, exposure to cold or to the air; exposure to danger or to contagion.
3. n. The thing revealed or exposed.
4. n. In photography, the act of presenting to the action of the actinic rays of light: as, the exposure was too long.
5. n. Situation with regard to the access of light or air; position relative to the sun or to the points of the compass; aspect: as, a southern exposure.
6. n. The act of casting out, or abandoning to chance, in some unsheltered or unprotected place; abandonment to death from cold, starvation, etc.: as, the exposure of a child. Synonyms Exposition, Exposé, etc. See exhibition. Venture, Hazard, etc. See risk, n.
7. n. In meteorology, the method of placing any instrument so that it shall correctly measure a given meteorological element. A barometer should he so placed as to indicate the pressure prevailing in the free air at a given level. If the wind is blowing the instrument, or the house in which it is placed, becomes an obstacle to the wind, by which the pressure is increased on the windward and diminished on the leeward side; similarly, in a wind, an open chimney in a closed room causes a lowering of the pressure, while a window opened on the windward side causes an increase. In general, a barometer, whether mercurial or aneroid. should be so placed that the wind-effect may be annulled or measured and allowed for. The latter is accomplished by the anemobarometer (which see). In order that a thermometer shall indicate truly the temperature of the air, it must receive heat from the air by convection and conduction, but all radiation from other objects should be cut off except from those having the same temperature as the air. When a thermometer is hung in the open air in the shade, it is usually exposed to radiant heat from the soil, buildings, and clouds, and to reflections of the rays of the sun; it also radiates its own heat to cold objects and to the sky. Its temperature represents a balance between its momentary gain and loss of heat, and has little to do with the temperature of the adjacent air unless the wind is blowing strongly enough. When held in the shadow of a wall or tree, its temperature is usually somewhat lower than when it is moved a few inches farther on into the full sunshine, although the temperature of the air is the same in both places. A common method of exposure is to place the thermometer within a screen or so-called thermometer-shelter made of light slats overlapping each other so as to cut out direct sunlight but allow the free entrance of the wind. This method fails if the wind fails to keep the interior surfaces of the shelter at the true air-temperature, for, in general, the temperature of these surfaces lags behind the temperature of the air. By rapidly whirling a thermometer or by creating a rapid current past it, the convection may be increased to such an extent as to bring the thermometer to the temperature of the air within a very small limit. Numerous methods of effecting this have been devised and employed.
8. n. In forestry, see aspect, 9.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected.
2. n. countable, uncountable That part which is facing or exposed to something, e.g. the sun, weather, sky, or a view.
3. n. uncountable Lack of protection from weather or the elements.
4. n. photography An instance of taking a photograph.
5. n. photography The piece of film exposed to light.
6. n. photography Details of the time and f-number used.
7. n. horticulture The amount of sun, wind etc. experienced by a particular site.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of exposing or laying open, setting forth, laying bare of protection, depriving of care or concealment, or setting out to reprobation or contempt.
2. n. The state of being exposed or laid open or bare; openness to danger; accessibility to anything that may affect, especially detrimentally.
3. n. Position as to points of compass, or to influences of climate, etc.
4. n. (Photog.) The exposing of a sensitized plate to the action of light.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the disclosure of something secret
2. n. the intensity of light falling on a photographic film or plate
3. n. vulnerability to the elements; to the action of heat or cold or wind or rain
4. n. abandoning without shelter or protection (as by leaving as infant out in the open)
5. n. presentation to view in an open or public manner
6. n. a representation of a person or scene in the form of print or transparent slide; recorded by a camera on light-sensitive material
7. n. aspect resulting from the direction a building or window faces
8. n. the act of exposing film to light
9. n. the state of being vulnerable or exposed
10. n. the act of subjecting someone to an influencing experience