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picture

Pronunciation: /ˈpɪktʃə/
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Definition of picture

noun

  • 1a painting or drawing:draw a picture of a tree
  • a photograph:we were warned not to take pictures
  • a portrait:she had her picture painted
  • an image on a television screen: television pictures of captured airmen [as modifier]:poor picture quality
  • a cinema film:the movie took five honours including best picture
  • (the pictures) the cinema:I’m going to the pictures with my mates
  • 2an impression of something formed from a description:a full picture of the disaster had not yet emerged
  • 3 archaic a person or thing resembling another closely: ‘How excessively like her brother Miss Morland is!’ ‘The very picture of him, indeed!’

verb

[with object]
  • represent in a photograph or picture:he is pictured with party guests
  • describe in a certain way:biographers have pictured him as a St Francis
  • form a mental image of:she pictured Benjamin waiting

Phrases

be in pictures

chiefly North American act in films or work for the film industry: someone told her she ought to be in pictures

be (or look) a picture

be very pleasing to look at: Kim looked a picture

the big (or bigger or larger) picture

informal the situation as a whole:he’s so involved in the minutiae that he often overlooks the big picture

get the picture

informal understand a situation: any trouble your father might have we can hide—d’you get the picture?

in the picture

fully informed about something: he called Forbes in London to put him in the picture

out of the picture

so as to be no longer involved in a situation:hostages were better left out of the picture

a (or the) picture of ——

the embodiment of a specified state or emotion:she looked a picture of health

(as) pretty as a picture

very pretty.

Origin:

late Middle English: from Latin pictura, from pict- 'painted' (from the verb pingere)

picture in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of picture in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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