picture

n. [ L. pictura, fr. pingere, pictum, to paint: cf. F. peinture. See Paint. ] 1. The art of painting; representation by painting. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Any well-expressed image . . . either in picture or sculpture. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, produced by means of painting, drawing, engraving, photography, etc.; a representation in colors. By extension, a figure; a model. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

The young king's picture . . . in virgin wax. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An image or resemblance; a representation, either to the eye or to the mind; that which, by its likeness, brings vividly to mind some other thing; as, a child is the picture of his father; the man is the picture of grief. [ 1913 Webster ]

My eyes make pictures when they are shut. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Picture is often used adjectively, or in forming self-explaining compounds; as, picture book or picture-book, picture frame or picture-frame, picture seller or picture-seller, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Animated picture, a moving picture. --
Picture gallery, a gallery, or large apartment, devoted to the exhibition of pictures. --
Picture red, a rod of metal tube fixed to the walls of a room, from which pictures are hung. --
Picture writing. (a) The art of recording events, or of expressing messages, by means of pictures representing the actions or circumstances in question. Tylor. (b) The record or message so represented; as, the picture writing of the American Indians. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Picture, Painting. Every kind of representation by drawing or painting is a picture, whether made with oil colors, water colors, pencil, crayons, or India ink; strictly, a painting is a picture made by means of colored paints, usually applied moist with a brush. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Pictured p. pr. & vb. n. Picturing. ] To draw or paint a resemblance of; to delineate; to represent; to form or present an ideal likeness of; to bring before the mind. “I . . . do picture it in my mind.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have not seen him so pictured. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Furnished with pictures; represented by a picture or pictures; as, a pictured scene. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who makes pictures; a painter. [ R. ] Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ It. pittoresco: cf. F. pittoresque. See Pictorial. ] Forming, or fitted to form, a good or pleasing picture; representing with the clearness or ideal beauty appropriate to a picture; expressing that peculiar kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture, natural or artificial; graphic; vivid; as, a picturesque scene or attitude; picturesque language. [ 1913 Webster ]

What is picturesque as placed in relation to the beautiful and the sublime? It is . . . the characteristic pushed into a sensible excess. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Pic`tur*esque"ly, adv. -- Pic`tur*esque"ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]