ges·ture

(jĕs′chər)

a. A motion of the limbs or body made to express or help express thought or to emphasize speech.

b. The action of making such a motion or motions: communicated solely by gesture.

2. An act or a remark made as a formality or as a sign of intention or attitude: sent flowers as a gesture of sympathy.

v. ges·tured, ges·tur·ing, ges·tures

v.intr.

To make gestures.

v.tr.

To show, express, or direct by gestures: gestured her disapproval.

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin gestūra, bearing, from Latin gestus, past participle of gerere, to carry, carry on, act.]

ges′tur·al adj.

ges′tur·al·ly adv.

ges′tur·er n.

Synonyms: gesture, gesticulation, sign, signal
These nouns denote an expressive, meaningful bodily motion: a gesture of approval; frantic gesticulations to get help; made a sign for silence; gave the signal to advance.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	gestural - used of the language of the deaf sign, sign-language, signed communicatory, communicative - able or tending to communicate; "was a communicative person and quickly told all she knew"- W.M.Thackeray
	2.	gestural - being other than verbal communication; "the study of gestural communication"; "art like gesture is a form of nonverbal expression" nonverbal communicatory, communicative - able or tending to communicate; "was a communicative person and quickly told all she knew"- W.M.Thackeray

Translations

gestuale

gestual

gestural

[ˈdʒestʃərəl] ADJ [language] → gestual

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

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References in periodicals archive

Like many artists who were enamored with abstraction, Carating started as a gestural painter.

Norberto Carating's 'Deep Forest': Deeper approach in art

An indelible metonym for modernism, it is, as they say, overdetermined, so much so that to make a gestural mark today is to court a certain generic quality--and the nagging sense that whatever you're doing has, regrettably, been done before.

Yanyan Huang: Tomorrow Gallery

Summary: On view are her gestural portraits of people around her--friends, family and many well known figures such as JFK

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Gestural artwork, the other side of Carating's creative coin

Controlled and gestural art works are Norberto Carating's self-referred tensions

However, pectoral appendages also function in social communication for the purposes of making sounds that we simply refer to as non-vocal sonic signals, and for gestural signalling."

Thank fish for human hand gestures

Instead, gestural dynamism is simply punctuated by moments of flat color, mostly white, that become mere points on which the eye might pause amid this continuous fluidity.

Ian Woo: Tomio Koyama Gallery

A study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, suggests that this "hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors.

Right-handed chimps provide clues to origin of human language

Voice and gesture are at the core of this class and most of the other classes I teach." She calls this process building a gestural vocabulary.

Exploring voice & gesture: finding strength and power

The application of this screen, however, is justified on more than merely gestural or superficial grounds.

Gay Paris: a flamboyant laser cut stainless-steel screen brings unity, coherence and continuity

In the study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, Georgia), researchers have suggested that this "hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors.

Right-handed chimps hint towards origin of human language