Picture

(pĭkt'yūr, 53), n. [Lat. pictura, from pingere, pictum, to paint; Fr. peinture, Pr. pictura, pinctura, peintura, penchura, Sp. & Pg. pintura, It. pintura, pittura.] 1. That which is painted; a likeness drawn in colors; hence, any graphic representation, as of a person, a landscape, a building. Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects. Bacon. 2. The art of, or representation by, painting. Quintilian, when he saw any well-expressed image of grief, either in picture or sculpture, would usually weep. Wotton. 3. Hence, an image or resemblance; that which, by its likeness, brings vividly to mind some other thing; as, a child is the picture of his father; the poet has drawn an exquisite picture of grief. Picture is sometimes used in forming self-explaining compounds; as, picture-book, picture-cleaner, picture-like, picture-restorer, picture-seller, and the like. Syn.—PICTURE, PAINTING. Every kind of drawing is a picture, whether in pencil, crayons, or India ink, &c.; a painting is a representation by means of color. This holds good in a figurative sense; the historian draws a lively picture, the poet paints in glowing colors. Justice is pictured blind, not because it is to be without the eye of knowledge, but the eye of partiality. Smith. True poetry the painter's power displays; True painting emulates the poet's lays; The rival sisters, fond of equal fame, Alternate change their office and their name. Mason.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. PICTURED; p. pr. & vb. n. PICTURING.] To draw or paint a resemblance of; to represent; to form or present an ideal likeness of; to recall distinctly or vividly. I do picture it in my mind. Spencer. Love is like a painter, who, in drawing the picture of a friend having a blemish in one eye, would picture only the other side of the face. South.