Meanings
- uncountablebroadcastingThe use of an iris shot.
Irising is frequently used instead of the fade to indicate the completion of a scene sequence and the beginning of a new series of scenes.
1920, Frances Taylor Patterson, chapter 4, in Cinema Craftsmanship: A Book for Photoplaywrights, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, page 1202 more examples
Throughout the film [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari] circular patterns are symbolic of chaos. Where irising began and ended a happy carnival sequence, an underlying feeling of chaos was created.
1976, Allan Casebier, Film Appreciation, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 1, p. 22The screen is black at first, till a brightly lit hole opens in it and an all-black silhouette stands at what we see, in a moment, is a doorway. This is the wide-screen equivalent of irising in Ford’s silent films.
1998, Garry Wills, chapter 20, in John Wayne’s America, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 254
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of iris
Cite this entry
irising. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irising
“irising.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irising. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “irising,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irising.
Source: irising on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.