depicture

present singular third person depictures · participle present depicturing · participle past depictured · past depictured

1. archaictransitiveTo 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;

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   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

   Synonyms: depict, portray, render

2. archaictransitiveTo 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.

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   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

   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

   Synonyms: describe, depict, portray

3. archaictransitiveTo 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.

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   […] 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

   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

   Synonyms: reflect, show, indicate, betoken

4. archaictransitiveTo 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

   Synonyms: imagine, picture

plural depictures

1. archaicThe act or result of depicturing something or someone.

   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.

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   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

   Synonyms: depiction