limn

American  

[lim] / lɪm /

verb (used with object)

1. to represent in drawing or painting.

2. to portray in words; describe.

3. Obsolete.  to illuminate (manuscripts).

---

limn British  

/ ˈlɪmnə, lɪm /

verb

1. to represent in drawing or painting

2. archaic  to describe in words

3. an obsolete word for illuminate

---

Other Word Forms

• limner noun
• outlimn verb (used with object)
• unlimned adjective

Etymology

Origin of limn

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English lymne, variant of Middle English luminen “to illuminate (manuscripts),” variant of enlumine, from Middle French enluminer, from Latin inlūmināre “to embellish,” literally, “light up”; illuminate

Example Sentences

Here, the music that shapes the speech of Smith’s interview subjects is refined and elevated through Roumain’s richly limned and emotionally attentive score.

From Washington Post

As much as Rockwell astutely limns how lives are shaped by forces out of their control, she’s no fatalist: She gives Inez and Terry their happy ending, as hard-won and ambiguous as it is.

From Washington Post

Indeed, “The Son” is so ham-handed, so hysterically pitched and manufactured, that’s it’s difficult to believe it emanated from the same hand that brought such skill to limning the shifting cognitive realities in “The Father.”

From Washington Post

All these flat shapes are limned by dark lines — the reverse of the delicate nimbus of light surrounding them in the original.

From Washington Post

There are images in “Uta Barth: Peripheral Vision” of curtain hems limned in light, a lamp hanging in otherwise empty space, the edge of a window frame, a horizon line of sofa cushions, distant trees.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• delineate