limn
Americanverb (used with object)
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to represent in drawing or painting.
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to portray in words; describe.
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Obsolete. to illuminate (manuscripts).
verb
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to represent in drawing or painting
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archaic to describe in words
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an obsolete word for illuminate
Other Word Forms
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”; see illuminate
Explanation
Limn is a verb that means "to represent" or "portray." It is most often used to describe the act of drawing or painting a portrait, but it can also refer to describing or outlining a scene or event. The verb limn evolved from the Latin lumināre, "to illuminate." The word referred originally to coloring (illuminating) manuscripts. The sense of "portray" or "depict" did not come into use until the late 16th century, but that meaning is close to the original, since someone who paints a portrait usually illuminates something about the subject's character. The word is less often used of written description, as in "Her reviews tended to limn the worst aspects of the performance, ignoring the best."
Vocabulary lists containing limn
Ophelia
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As You Like It
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Martin Eden
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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.
Such moments of insight and empathy limn Darraj’s novel, shining through the sadness and tension of her characters’ lives.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 22, 2024
There’s not a limit Negrón can’t limn into music.
From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2021
Shakespeare’s tragedies give us characters with groundbreaking interiority and self-consciousness, plays that use familiar stories to limn the human condition, but they still end in sword duels and death.
From Slate • May 9, 2019
My desire to orient the reader at all is itself a narrative choice, and one that not all writers who’ve attempted to limn the psychedelic experience regard as fair play.
From New York Times • Dec. 24, 2018
Cristiana could also limn with skill, painting lifelike birds and flowers and faces I could recognize as those of Gertrude and her ladies.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
