[sten-suh
l] 
noun, verb, -ciled, -cil⋅ing or (especially British) -cilled, -cil⋅ling.| 1. | a device for applying a pattern, design, words, etc., to a surface, consisting of a thin sheet of cardboard, metal, or other material from which figures or letters have been cut out, a coloring substance, ink, etc., being rubbed, brushed, or pressed over the sheet, passing through the perforations and onto the surface. |
| 2. | the letters, designs, etc., produced on a surface by this method. |
| 3. | to mark or paint (a surface) by means of a stencil. |
| 4. | to produce (letters, figures, designs, etc.) by means of a stencil. |
sten·cil (stěn'səl)  (click for larger image in new window) n.
[From Middle English stencelled, adorned brightly, from Old French estenceler, to adorn brightly, from estencele, spark, from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, alteration of Latin scintilla, spark.] sten'cil·er n. |
stencilling
in the visual arts, a technique for reproducing designs by passing ink or paint over holes cut in cardboard or metal onto the surface to be decorated. Stencils were known in China as early as the 8th century, and Eskimo in Baffin Island were making prints from stencils cut in sealskins before their contact with Western civilization. In the 20th century stencils are used for such diverse purposes as making mimeographs and fine paintings. The Pop-art paintings of the 20th-century American artist Roy Lichtenstein, for example, simulated the dots characteristic of the halftone process of comic-book illustrations by painting over evenly distributed perforations in a thin sheet of metal
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