Image \Im"age\, n. [F., fr. L. imago, imaginis, from the root of
imitari to imitate. See Imitate, and cf. Imagine.]
1. An imitation, representation, or similitude of any person,
thing, or act, sculptured, drawn, painted, or otherwise
made perceptible to the sight; a visible presentation; a
copy; a likeness; an effigy; a picture; a semblance.
Even like a stony image, cold and numb. --Shak.
Whose is this image and superscription? --Matt.
xxii. 20.
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
--Shak.
And God created man in his own image. --Gen. i. 27.
2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid;
an idol. --Chaucer.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . .
. thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. --Ex. xx.
4, 5.
3. Show; appearance; cast.
The face of things a frightful image bears.
--Dryden.
4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn
by the fancy; a conception; an idea.
Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or
great? --Prior.
5. (Rhet.) A picture, example, or illustration, often taken
from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject;
usually, an extended metaphor. --Brande & C.
6. (Opt.) The figure or picture of any object formed at the
focus of a lens or mirror, by rays of light from the
several points of the object symmetrically refracted or
reflected to corresponding points in such focus; this may
be received on a screen, a photographic plate, or the
retina of the eye, and viewed directly by the eye, or with
an eyeglass, as in the telescope and microscope; the
likeness of an object formed by reflection; as, to see
one's image in a mirror.
Electrical image. See under Electrical.
Image breaker, one who destroys images; an iconoclast.
Image graver, Image maker, a sculptor.
Image worship, the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry
distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images
themselves.
Image Purkinje (Physics), the image of the retinal blood
vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane.
Virtual image (Optics), a point or system of points, on one
side of a mirror or lens, which, if it existed, would emit
the system of rays which actually exists on the other side
of the mirror or lens. --Clerk Maxwell.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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