Picture \Pic"ture\, n. [L. pictura, fr. pingere, pictum, to
paint: cf. F. peinture. See Paint.]
1. The art of painting; representation by painting. [Obs.]
Any well-expressed image . . . either in picture or
sculpture. --Sir H.
Wotton.
2. A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a
building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, produced
by means of painting, drawing, engraving, photography,
etc.; a representation in colors. 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 other thing; as, a child is the
picture of his father; the man is the picture of grief.
My eyes make pictures when they are shut.
--Coleridge.
Note: 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 large apartment, devoted to
the exhibition of pictures.
Picture red, a rod of metal tube fixed to the walls of a
room, from which pictures are hung.
Picture writing.
(a) The art of recording events, or of expressing
messages, by means of pictures representing the
actions or circumstances in question. --Tylor.
(b) The record or message so represented; as, the picture
writing of the American Indians.
Syn: Picture, Painting.
Usage: Every kind of representation by drawing or painting is
a picture, whether made with oil colors, water colors,
pencil, crayons, or India ink; strictly, a painting is
a picture made by means of colored paints, usually
applied moist with a brush.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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