Dictionary

depicture en · NOUN

Etymology

From de- + picture; formed under the influence of depict.

Meanings

1. (archaic) The act or result of depicturing something or someone.
   • The conception of a misdeed operating through several generations […] was a novel one at the time; this graphic depicture of the past at work upon the present has anticipated a great deal of the history and criticism of the following twenty-five years […] 1876, George Parsons Lathrop, chapter 8, in A Study of Hawthorne, Boston: James R. Osgood, page 237:
   • No pen could do them justice; and, among painters, only the brush of a Corot could attempt their depicture without depriving them of their exquisite, their almost evanescent, softness. 1914, Arnold Haultain, chapter 8, in Of Walks and Walking Tours, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 31:
   • 1972, Stanley Bertram Chrimes, Henry VII, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, Appendix F: “Portraiture of Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth,” p. 333, Three other depictures of Henry VII are known to have been made during his lifetime.

Forms

Synonyms

depiction

depicture en · VERB

Etymology

From de- + picture; formed under the influence of depict.

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive) To make a picture or representation of.
   • 1749 Henry Fielding, A Journey from this World to the Next, Book 1, Chapter 3, in The Works of Henry Fielding, London: J. Johnson et al., 1806, Volume 4, pp. 339-340, I next mounted through a large painted staircase, where several persons were depictured in caricatura;
   • The bed appointed for the prince to rest himselfe, was of blacke Ebonie enchased which Rubies, Diamons and Carbun[c]ls […] on which by degrees mans state from infancie to his olde age was plainly depictured, 1596, Thomas Lodge, A Margarite of America, London: John Busbie:
2. (archaic, transitive) To represent in words.
   • 1862, Ellen Wood (as Mrs. Henry Wood), Life’s Secret, London: Charles W. Wood, 1867, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 192, You have seen some of its [the dispute’s] disastrous working upon the men: you cannot see it all, for it would take a whole volume to depicture it.
   • Now as soon as the goldsmith saw her, he knew her (for that the Prince had talked with him of her and had depictured her to him) […] 1886, “The Tale of the Prince who fell in love with the Picture”, in Richard Francis Burton, transl., Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, London: The Burton Club, page 229:
   • The modern Fiction which depictures the son of Cytherea [i.e. Eros] with a bandage round his eyes, is not without a spiritual meaning. There is a sweet and holy Blindness in Christian LOVE […] 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Moral and Religious Aphorisms”, in Aids to Reflection, London: William Pickering, published 1836, page 85:
3. (archaic, transitive) To give visual evidence of (referring to a person's facial expression or appearance)
   • 1910, anonymous, “The State of Arkansaw” in John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, New York: Sturgis & Walton, p. 227, I followed my conductor into his dwelling place; Poverty were depictured in his melancholy face.
   • A look, depicturing such agony as Ingram never saw before, in the face of man, accompanied this declaration on the part of his friend […] 1845, Thomas Cooper, “London ’Venture; or, The Old Story Over Again”, in Wise Saws and Modern Instances, volume 1, London: Jeremiah How, page 58:
   • […] he entered the church with a proud firm step, and with a countenance which depictured his inward triumph; 1790, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 12, in A Sicilian Romance, volume 2, London: T. Hookham, page 115:
4. (archaic, transitive) To form a mental image of.
   • […] I would depicture her, a foiled and wistful little wraith, very lonely in eternity […] 1909, James Branch Cabell, chapter 30, in The Cords of Vanity, New York: Doubleday, Page, page 326:

Forms

Deriveds

depicturement

Synonyms

depict · picture · reflect · portray · render · betoken · show · describe · imagine · depict · portray · indicate