- picture
- [[t]pɪ̱ktʃə(r)[/t]]
♦♦pictures, picturing, pictured1) N-COUNT A picture consists of lines and shapes which are drawn, painted, or printed on a surface and show a person, thing, or scene.
A picture of Rory O'Moore hangs in the dining room at Kildangan.
...drawing a small picture with coloured chalks.
2) N-COUNT A picture is a photograph.The tourists have nothing to do but take pictures of each other...
The Observer carries a big front-page picture of rioters in a litter-strewn street.
3) N-COUNT: usu pl Television pictures are the scenes which you see on a television screen....heartrending television pictures of human suffering.
4) VERB: usu passive To be pictured somewhere, for example in a newspaper or magazine, means to appear in a photograph or picture.[be V-ed] The golfer is pictured on many of the front pages, kissing his trophy as he holds it aloft.
[be V-ed -ing] ...a woman who claimed she had been pictured dancing with a celebrity in Stringfellows nightclub...
[V-ed] The rattan and wrought-iron chair pictured here costs ₤125.
5) N-COUNT You can refer to a film as a picture.Warner Communications Inc. has refused to distribute the picture in the United States.
...a director of epic action pictures.
Syn:6) N-PLURAL: the N If you go to the pictures, you go to a cinema to see a film. [BRIT]We're going to the pictures tonight...
I'd rather see it at the pictures than on video anyway.
Syn:(in AM, use the movies)7) N-COUNT: oft N of n If you have a picture of something in your mind, you have a clear idea or memory of it in your mind as if you were actually seeing it.They have in their mind a picture of what an alcoholic should look like...
We are just trying to get our picture of the whole afternoon straight...
I tried to put the picture from my mind.
Syn:8) VERB If you picture something in your mind, you think of it and have such a clear memory or idea of it that you seem to be able to see it.[V n prep] He pictured her with long black braided hair...
[V n prep] I never would have pictured this as her home...
[V n -ing] He pictured Claire sitting out in the car, waiting for him...
[V n -ing] She pictured herself working with animals...
[V n] I tried to picture the place, but could not. [Also V n adj]
Syn:9) N-COUNT: usu sing, with supp A picture of something is a description of it or an indication of what it is like.I'll try and give you a better picture of what the boys do...
Her book paints a bleak picture of the problems women now face...
From the files that have now been released, a truer picture emerges.
10) N-SING: oft the N When you refer to the picture in a particular place, you are referring to the situation there.But as with other charitable bodies, these figures mask the true picture...
It's a similar picture across the border in Ethiopia.
Syn:11) PHRASE: V inflects If you get the picture, you understand the situation, especially one which someone is describing to you.Luke never tells you the whole story, but you always get the picture.
Syn:get the idea12) PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v If you say that someone is in the picture, you mean that they are involved in the situation that you are talking about. If you say that they are out of the picture, you mean that they are not involved in the situation.Meyerson is back in the picture after disappearing in July...
Sometimes security was so tight that people who might have had something important to offer were left out of the picture.
13) PHRASE: v-link PHR You use picture to describe what someone looks like. For example, if you say that someone is a picture of health or the picture of misery, you mean that they look extremely healthy or extremely miserable.We found her standing on a chair, the picture of terror, screaming hysterically.
14) PHRASE: V inflects If you put someone in the picture, you tell them about a situation which they need to know about.Has Inspector Fayard put you in the picture?
English dictionary. 2008.
