adumbrate

American  

[a-duhm-breyt, ad-uhm-breyt] / æˈdʌm breɪt, ˈæd əmˌbreɪt /

verb (used with object)

adumbrated, adumbrating

1. to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.

2. to foreshadow; prefigure.

3. to darken or conceal partially; overshadow.

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adumbrate British  

/ ædˈʌmbrətɪv, ˈædʌmˌbreɪt /

verb

1. to outline; give a faint indication of

2. to foreshadow

3. to overshadow; obscure

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Other Word Forms

• adumbration noun
• adumbrative adjective
• adumbratively adverb

Etymology

Origin of adumbrate

First recorded in 1575–85; from Latin adumbrātus “shaded,” past participle of adumbrāre “to shade,” from ad- ad- + umbr(a) “shade, shadow” + -āre, infinitive verb suffix

Explanation

To adumbrate something is to outline it. In an English essay, you could adumbrate the themes in a novel; or, in a letter to Santa, you could adumbrate all the ways you have been behaving. Adumbrate is built on the Latin root umbra, "shade," and the image it evokes is of a shadow being cast around something. Your outline is like a shadow of something bigger — like the themes in that novel or the ways you have been behaving. You can also use adumbrate to mean "foreshadow": "The scene where the princess dreams of the vampire adumbrates her later discovery that her little brother is, in fact, a vampire."

Example Sentences

His photographs have used a variety of techniques to adumbrate this world.

From New York Times • Aug. 10, 2017

Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian But as soon as you adumbrate thus, you are beset with misgivings.

From The Guardian • Apr. 19, 2016

Together with the bare facts of the retreat at Walden, those lines have become the ones by which we adumbrate Thoreau, so that our image of the man has also become simplified and inspirational.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 19, 2015

Luther, Calvin and Wesley are as upstarts to him, whose phrases adumbrate the flowery staff of St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury.

From Time Magazine Archive

But we can adumbrate something of the form of this deepest reason, if we let the thoughts of our heart move upon the face of the dim profound.

From Unspoken Sermons Series I., II., and II. by MacDonald, George