1. The
art of painting; representation by painting. "Any well-expressed
image . . . Either in
picture or sculpture." (Sir H. Wotton)
2. A representation of anything (as a face, a landscape, a building)
upon canvas, paper, or another surface, produced by means of painting, drawing, engraving, photo, etc.; a representation in colours. By extension, a figure; a model. "Pictures and shapes are
but secondary objects." (Bacon) "The
young king's
picture . . . In
virgin wax." (Howell)
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 another thing; as, a
baby is the
picture of
his father; the
man is the
picture of grief. "My eyes create pictures when they are shut." (Coleridge)
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. Picture gallery, a gallery, or
big apartment, devoted to the
exhibition of pictures. Picture red, a
rod of
metal pipe fixed to the walls of a room, from which pictures are hung. Picture writing. The
art of
recording events, or of expressing messages, by means of pictures representing the actions or circumstances in question. The
record or report so represented; as, the
picture writing of the American Indians.
Synonym: Picture, Painting.
Every
kind of representation by drawing or painting is a picture, whether made with
oil colours,
water colours, pencil, crayons, or India ink; strictly, a painting is a
picture made by means of coloured paints, generally applied
moist with a brush.
Origin: L. Pictura, fr. Pingere, pictum, to dye: cf. F. Peinture. See Paint.
Source: Websters Vocabulary