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View synonyms for limn

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. an obsolete word for illuminate
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • limner, noun
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Other Words From

  • outlimn verb (used with object)
  • un·limned adjective
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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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of limn1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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limmerlimner