Landscapes

land·scape  (lndskp)

n.

1. An expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view: a desert landscape.

2. A picture depicting an expanse of scenery.

3. The branch of art dealing with the representation of natural scenery.

4. The aspect of the land characteristic of a particular region: a bleak New England winter landscape.

5. Grounds that have been landscaped: liked the house especially for its landscape.

6. An extensive mental view; an interior prospect: "They occupy the whole landscape of my thought" (James Thurber).

adj.

1. Of or relating to a landscape or landscapes: landscape painting.

2. Of or relating to landscaping: a nursery offering landscape services.

3. Of or relating to the orientation of a page such that the shorter side runs from top to bottom: printed the document in landscape mode in order to accommodate the wide columns of a table.

v. land·scaped, land·scap·ing, land·scapes

v.tr.

To adorn or improve (a section of ground) by contouring and by planting flowers, shrubs, or trees.

v.intr.

To arrange grounds artistically as a profession.

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[Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land; see lendh- in Indo-European roots + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).]

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landscaper n.

Word History: Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were pioneering the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply "region, tract of land" but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of "a picture depicting scenery on land." Interestingly, 34 years pass after the first recorded use of landscape in English before the word is used of a view or vista of natural scenery. This delay suggests that people were first introduced to landscapes in paintings and then saw landscapes in real life.

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Landscapes 

See Also: MOUNTAINS, NATURE, ROAD SCENES, PONDS AND STREAMS, TREES

1. The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye and it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky —Oscar Hammerstein, II, from opening lyric for Oklahoma.
2. The country lay like an abandoned theatrical backdrop, tarnished and yellow —Beryl Markham
3. The endless fields glowed like a hearth in firelight —Eudora Welty
4. A farm … off the road … glittering like a photo in a picture book with its twin silos pointing to heaven like two fat white fingers —Harvey Swados
5. Fields like squares of a chessboard and trees and houses like dolls’ furniture —Hugh Walpole
6. The fields shone and seemed to tremble like a veil in the light —Eudora Welty
7. The fields were like icing sugar —Joyce Cary
8. The fields [in March] were white as bones and dry as meal —M. J. Farrell
9. Gardens, crowded with flowers of every rich and beautiful tint, sparkled … like beds of glittering jewels —Charles Dickens
10. Great spots of light like white wine splash over the Jardins Publiques —Katherine Mansfield
11. Green hummocks like ancient cannon-balls sprouting grass —Elizabeth Bishop
12. The land flowed like white silk … flat as a bed sheet and empty as the moon —Frank Ross
13. Landscape as precise and vibrant as fine writing —Sharon Sheehe Stark
14. The landscape boiled around her like a pan of beans —Dilys Laing
15. Landscape … gaunt and bleak like the face of the moon —Donald Seaman
16. Landscape … like a gray sink —Paul Theroux
17. The landscape [when it snows] lumps like flour gravy —Lisa Ress
18. Landscapes … like sorrows, they require some distance —Donald Justice
19. The landscape was bleak and bereft of color … like a painting in grisaille with its many tints of gray —Barbara Taylor Bradford
20. The landscape was yellowish and purple, speckled like a leopard skin —Nikos Kazantzakis
21. The lawn looked as expensive as a velvet carpet woven in one piece —Edith Wharton
22. The lawns looked artificial, like green excelsior or packing material —Saul Bellow
23. The lawn, spread out like an immense green towel —Ludwig Bemelmans
24. Light hits that field, like silk being rubbed the wrong way —John Gunther
25. The long slope of the park dipped like a length of green stuff with a ceiling cloth of blue and pink smoke high above —Virginia Woolf
26. Meadows carpeted with buttercups, like slabs of gold in the somber forest —John Fowles
27. Patches of earth showed through the snow, like ink spots spreading on a sheet of white blotting paper —Edith Wharton
28. Petals … fell on the grass like spilled paint —Laurie Colwin
29. Populating the field in dark humps, like elephants moving across savannah, were scores of great round straw bales —Will Weaver
30. Pretty cubes and loaves of new houses are strewn among the pines, like sugar lumps —Walker Percy
31. Smooth swelling fields, like waves —Wilbur Daniel Steele
32. The stony landscape … is full of craters and frozen lights like a moon —Erich Maria Remarque
33. Swelling smooth fields like pale breasts —Wilbur Daniel Steele
34. The reeds and willow bushes looked like little islands swaying in the wind —Leo Tolstoy
35. Vast lawns that extend like sheets of vivid green —Washington Irving

    Irving’s simile was inspired by English park scenery.

36. The wet countryside glistened and dripped as though it had been freshly scrubbed —Robert Traver
37. Wet furry fields lay like the stomachs of soft animals bared to the sky —Julia O’Faolain
38. Wet pine growth reflects the sunlight like steel knitting needles —Walker Percy
39. When you drive by them [the woods] fast, the crop rows in between spin like spokes on a turning wheel —Alec Wilkinson, New Yorker, August 12, 1985
40. The whole landscape loomed absolute, as the antique world was once —Sylvia Plath
41. The whole [valley] was like a broad counterpane, hued in rust and yellow and golden brown —Beryl Markham