depicture
English edit
Etymology edit
From de- + picture; formed under the influence of depict.
Verb edit
depicture (third-person singular simple present depictures, present participle depicturing, simple past and past participle depictured)
- (transitive, archaic) To make a picture or representation of.
- 1596, Thomas Lodge, A Margarite of America[1], London: John Busbie:
- 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,
- 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,[2]
- I next mounted through a large painted staircase, where several persons were depictured in caricatura;
- (transitive, archaic) To represent in words.
- 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Moral and Religious Aphorisms”, in Aids to Reflection[3], London: William Pickering, published 1836, page 85:
- 1862, Ellen Wood (as Mrs. Henry Wood), Life’s Secret, London: Charles W. Wood, 1867, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 192,[4]
- 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.
- 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[5], London: The Burton Club, page 229:
- 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) […]
- (transitive, archaic) To give visual evidence of (referring to a person's facial expression or appearance)
- 1790, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 12, in A Sicilian Romance[6], volume 2, London: T. Hookham, page 115:
- […] he entered the church with a proud firm step, and with a countenance which depictured his inward triumph;
- 1845, Thomas Cooper, “London ’Venture; or, The Old Story Over Again”, in Wise Saws and Modern Instances[7], volume 1, London: Jeremiah How, page 58:
- A look, depicturing such agony as Ingram never saw before, in the face of man, accompanied this declaration on the part of his friend […]
- 1910, anonymous, “The State of Arkansaw” in John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, New York: Sturgis & Walton, p. 227,[8]
- I followed my conductor into his dwelling place;
- Poverty were depictured in his melancholy face.
- (transitive, archaic) To form a mental image of.
- 1909, James Branch Cabell, chapter 30, in The Cords of Vanity[9], New York: Doubleday, Page, page 326:
- […] I would depicture her, a foiled and wistful little wraith, very lonely in eternity […]
Derived terms edit
Noun edit
depicture (plural depictures)
- (archaic) The act or result of depicturing something or someone.
- Synonym: depiction
- 1876, George Parsons Lathrop, chapter 8, in A Study of Hawthorne[10], Boston: James R. Osgood, page 237:
- 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 […]
- 1914, Arnold Haultain, chapter 8, in Of Walks and Walking Tours[11], London: T. Werner Laurie, page 31:
- 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.
- 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,[12]
- Three other depictures of Henry VII are known to have been made during his lifetime.