adumbrate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
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to foreshadow; prefigure.
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to darken or conceal partially; overshadow.
verb
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to outline; give a faint indication of
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to foreshadow
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to overshadow; obscure
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have adumbratedperfect
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has adumbratedperfect 3rd person singular
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is adumbratingprogressive 3rd person singular
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has been adumbratingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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have been adumbratingperfect progressive
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adumbratingparticiple
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are adumbratingprogressive
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adumbratessingular 3rd person
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am adumbratingprogressive 1st person singular
Past
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had adumbratedperfect
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was adumbratingprogressive singular
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had been adumbratingperfect progressive
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were adumbratingprogressive plural
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adumbratedparticiple
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adumbratedsimple
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing adumbrate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Adumbrate, ad-um′brāt, or ad′-, v.t. to give a faint shadow of: to exhibit imperfectly.—adjs.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
