picture

[pik-cher]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR picture ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a visual representation of a person, object, or scene, as a painting, drawing, photograph, etc.: I carry a picture of my grandchild in my wallet.

any visible image, however produced: pictures reflected in a pool of water.

a mental image: a clear picture of how he had looked that day.

a particular image or reality as portrayed in an account or description; depiction; version.

a tableau, as in theatrical representation.

motion picture.

pictures, Informal: Older Use. movies.

a person, thing, group, or scene regarded as resembling a work of pictorial art in beauty, fineness of appearance, etc.: She was a picture in her new blue dress.

the image or perfect likeness of someone else: He is the picture of his father.

a visible or concrete embodiment of some quality or condition: the picture of health.

a situation or set of circumstances: the economic picture.

the image on a computer monitor, the viewing screen of a television set, or a motion-picture screen.

verb (used with object), pic·tured, pic·tur·ing.

to represent in a picture or pictorially, as by painting or drawing.

to form a mental picture of; imagine: He couldn't picture himself doing such a thing.

to depict in words; describe graphically: He pictured Rome so vividly that you half-believed you were there.

to present or create as a setting; portray: His book pictured the world of the future.

Origin of picture

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin pictūra the act of painting, a painting, equivalent to pict(us) (past participle of pingere to paint) + -ūra -ure

Related formspic·tur·a·ble, adjectivepic·tur·a·ble·ness, nounpic·tur·a·bly, adverbpic·tur·er, nounmis·pic·ture, verb (used with object), mis·pic·tured, mis·pic·tur·ing.self-pic·tured, adjectiveun·pic·tured, adjective

Can be confusedpicture pitcher

Synonyms for picture

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR picture ON THESAURUS.COM

13, 15. delineate, paint, draw, represent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for pictures

impression, photograph, copy, art, description, figure, image, account, sketch, cartoon, depiction, report, statue, portrayal, print, portrait, piece, painting, drawing, icon

Examples from the Web for pictures

Contemporary Examples of pictures

Lee and Coogan did briefly meet with the pope, with pictures to prove it, but no one at the Vatican officially screened the film.
Pope Francis Has the Pleasure of Meeting Angelina Jolie for a Few Seconds
Barbie Latza Nadeau
January 8, 2015
Afterward, the graduates posed for pictures with their families.
Cop Families Boo De Blasio at NYPD Graduation
Michael Daly
December 30, 2014
The pictures which would melt even the hardest of Republcian hearts were taken at the end of November.
The Adorable New Prince George Photos
Tom Sykes
December 15, 2014
The pictures of Gilkes emphasize, quite rightly and inevitably, his classic good looks.
William, Kate, and Jay Z’s Favorite Art Star: Alexander Gilkes' World of Rock Stars and Royalty
Tim Teeman
December 10, 2014
When she got the pictures back, she met Sean for coffee and discussed how to exhibit the photos.
Masters of Alt Sex: SuicideGirls Hits Puberty and Wants to Invade Your TV Set
Marlow Stern
December 9, 2014

Historical Examples of pictures

Pictures also are occasionally exhibited for his instruction.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
At last we got through all the rooms and all the pictures, and came out into the gardens.
To be Read at Dusk
Charles Dickens
So I got my first idea of what a book contained by the pictures in a spelling-book.
Biography of a Slave
Charles Thompson
Mulready's illustrations of 1843 are here referred to, net his pictures.
De Libris: Prose and Verse
Austin Dobson
These were the first pictures that Ben had ever seen, except those of his own drawing.
Biographical Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne

British Dictionary definitions for pictures

picture

noun

a visual representation of something, such as a person or scene, produced on a surface, as in a photograph, painting, etc
(as modifier)picture gallery; picture postcard Related adjective: pictorial

a mental image or impressiona clear picture of events

a verbal description, esp one that is vivid

a situation considered as an observable scenethe political picture

a person or thing that bears a close resemblance to anotherhe was the picture of his father

a person, scene, etc, considered as typifying a particular state or qualitythe picture of despair

a beautiful person or sceneyou'll look a picture

a complete image on a television screen, comprising two interlaced fields

a motion picture; film
(as modifier)picture theatre

the pictures mainly British and Australian a cinema or film show

another name for tableau vivant

get the picture informal to understand a situation

in the picture informed about a given situation

verb (tr)

to visualize or imagine

to describe or depict, esp vividly

(often passive) to put in a picture or make a picture ofthey were pictured sitting on the rocks

Word Origin for picture

C15: from Latin pictūra painting, from pingere to paint

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

Word Origin and History for pictures

"movies," 1912, short for moving pictures.

picture

early 15c., "drawing, painting," from Latin pictura "painting," from pictus, past participle of pingere "to make pictures, to paint, to embroider," (see paint (v.)). Picture window is from 1938. Picture post-card first recorded 1899. Phrase every picture tells a story first attested 1900, in advertisements for an illustrated life of Christ. To be in (or out of) the picture in the figurative sense dates to 1900.

Expression a picture is worth a thousand words, attested from 1918, probably was from the publication trade (the notion that a picture was worth 1,000 words is in printers' publications by 1911). The phrase also was in use in the form worth a million words, the form used by American newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane (1864-1936) in an editorial much-read c.1916 titled "What is a Good Newspaper" in the "New York Evening Journal." In part it read, "After news and humor come good pictures. In this day of hurry we learn through the eye, and one picture may be worth a million words." It seems to have emerged into general use via the medium of advertising (which scaled down the number and also gave the expression its spurious origin story as "a Japanese proverb" or some such thing, by 1919). Earlier various acts or deeds (and in one case "the arrow") were said to be worth a thousand words.

picture

late 15c. in the literal sense; 1738 in the mental sense, from picture (n.). Related: Pictured; picturing.

Idioms and Phrases with pictures

picture

In addition to the idiom beginning with picture

picture is worth a thousand words, one

also see:

get the message (picture)
in the picture
pretty as a picture
take a picture
the picture