limn

(lĭm)

tr.v. limned, limn·ing (lĭm′nĭng), limns

1. To describe or depict by painting or drawing.

2. To suffuse or highlight with light or color; illuminate: "There was just enough juice left in Merrill's flashlight to limn the outlines: A round lobe here. Another lobe over there" (Hampton Sides).

3. To describe or portray in words.

[Middle English limnen, to illuminate (a manuscript), probably alteration (influenced by limnour, illustrator) of luminen, from Old French luminer, from Latin lūmināre, to illuminate, adorn, from lūmen, lūmin-, light; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.]

limn′er (lĭm′nər) n.

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:

Noun

limning - a drawing of the outlines of forms or objects

line drawing, delineation, depiction

animalization - a depiction in the form of an animal

drawing - a representation of forms or objects on a surface by means of lines; "drawings of abstract forms"; "he did complicated pen-and-ink drawings like medieval miniatures"

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But the canvas of my imagination, when it came to limning the Man About Town, was blank.

View in context

The term 'portrait miniatures' was rarely used by the Elizabethans, who preferred the terms 'limning' or 'pictures in little'.

FACIAL RECOGNITION

That is why art is such a marvelous instrument for limning the divine.

"BLACK LIGHT: SECRETIVE TRADITIONS IN THE ARTS SINCE THE 1950s"

Classical, mythological, historical, and biographical types cast long shadows (or sunbeams) in Hawthorne's romances, no type being more powerful than Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, whose traits, values, and talents informed his limning of Phoebe in The House of the Seven Gables and Hilda in The Marble Faun.

Courtmanche, Jason Charles. How Nathaniel Hawthorne's Narratives Are Shaped by Sin: His Use of Biblical Typology in His Four Major Novels

Bayrakdarian sounds lovely throughout, clearly responding to the songs' direct emotion and humanity, and, limning her way elegantly through their distinctive melismas.

Gomidas Songs

Limning the Neapolitan origins, regional styles and enormous popularity of the American pie as backdrop, pic first finds strife in the rivalry between magazines PMQ and Pizza Today.

Pizza! The Movie

Anti-prostitution programs in northern Thailand--a limning region without a major city--now focus on promoting better schooling for gifts and teaching vocational skills to villagers.

Childhood's end: in Thailand, poverty isn't the primary reason that girls become prostitutes