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definitions

picture

[pik-cher]
See more synonyms for picture on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. 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.
  2. any visible image, however produced: pictures reflected in a pool of water.
  3. a mental image: a clear picture of how he had looked that day.
  4. a particular image or reality as portrayed in an account or description; depiction; version.
  5. a tableau, as in theatrical representation.
  6. motion picture.
  7. pictures, Informal: Older Use. movies.
  8. 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.
  9. the image or perfect likeness of someone else: He is the picture of his father.
  10. a visible or concrete embodiment of some quality or condition: the picture of health.
  11. a situation or set of circumstances: the economic picture.
  12. 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.
  1. to represent in a picture or pictorially, as by painting or drawing.
  2. to form a mental picture of; imagine: He couldn't picture himself doing such a thing.
  3. to depict in words; describe graphically: He pictured Rome so vividly that you half-believed you were there.
  4. 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 on Thesaurus.com
13, 15. delineate, paint, draw, represent.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for picturing

portray, paint, interpret, illustrate, visualize, envision, delineate, represent, draw, render, show, image, photograph, limn, sketch, daydream, create, fancy, see, fantasize

Examples from the Web for picturing

Contemporary Examples of picturing

Historical Examples of picturing

  • He was now picturing the part which Glory was to play in the life they were to live together.

    The Christian

    Hall Caine

  • He had been picturing her in happiness and plenty—was she in poverty and distress?

    The Manxman

    Hall Caine

  • Chet was picturing that place of "cold storage" as he smiled.

    The Finding of Haldgren

    Charles Willard Diffin

  • I was picturing to myself a sick-room and a sufferer, and I find you more beautiful than ever.

    One Of Them

    Charles James Lever

  • My father had also a way of picturing to himself every detail of what he wanted done.

    My Reminiscences

    Rabindranath Tagore

British Dictionary definitions for picturing

picture

noun
    1. a visual representation of something, such as a person or scene, produced on a surface, as in a photograph, painting, etc
    2. (as modifier)picture gallery; picture postcard Related adjective: pictorial
  2. a mental image or impressiona clear picture of events
  3. a verbal description, esp one that is vivid
  4. a situation considered as an observable scenethe political picture
  5. a person or thing that bears a close resemblance to anotherhe was the picture of his father
  6. a person, scene, etc, considered as typifying a particular state or qualitythe picture of despair
  7. a beautiful person or sceneyou'll look a picture
  8. a complete image on a television screen, comprising two interlaced fields
    1. a motion picture; film
    2. (as modifier)picture theatre
  10. the pictures mainly British and Australian a cinema or film show
  11. another name for tableau vivant
  12. get the picture informal to understand a situation
  13. in the picture informed about a given situation
verb (tr)
  1. to visualize or imagine
  2. to describe or depict, esp vividly
  3. (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 picturing

picture

n.

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

v.

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

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with picturing

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
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.