limn

[ lim ]

verb (used with object)

1. to represent in drawing or painting.
2. to portray in words; describe.
3. Obsolete. to illuminate (manuscripts).

limn

/ ˈlɪmnə; lɪm /

verb

1. to represent in drawing or painting
2. archaic.
   to describe in words
3. See illuminate
   an obsolete word for illuminate

Derived Forms

• limner, noun

Other Words From

• outlimn verb (used with object)
• un·limned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of limn¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of limn¹

C15: from Old French enluminer to illumine (a manuscript) from Latin inlūmināre to brighten, from lūmen light

Example Sentences

The idealized grid of fairness cannot limn the contours of these deep existential debts.

From The Daily Beast

I fear it is not possible to limn so many persons in so small a tablet as the compass of our plays afford.

From Project Gutenberg

Just as the old religious painters used to limn saints and Madonnas, let us now write works of artistic and moral fiction.

From Project Gutenberg

As I have sketched an ideal parlour, so would I limn a bedroom I have seen.

From Project Gutenberg

No, madam; the beauty of the features the artist had set himself to limn.

From Project Gutenberg

It is not possible in a chapter, a book or a five-foot shelf to limn all that is even of cursory interest.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• delineate