Dictionary

picture

Etymology

From Middle English pycture, from Old French picture, itself from Latin pictūra, from pingō ("I paint").

Pronunciation

(RP) IPA: /ˈpɪk(t)ʃə/
(America) IPA: /ˈpɪk(t)ʃəɹ/
(regional, informal) IPA: /ˈpɪt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Noun

picture (plural pictures)

A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, by drawing, painting, printing, photography, etc.
- 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC ↗:
  Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
An image; a representation as in the imagination.
- 1828, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Day Dream:
  My eyes make pictures when they are shut.
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:
  So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
- 2007, The Workers' Republic:
  Prior to seeing him and meeting him, and hearing him speak, I had conjured up a picture of him in my mind, which actual contact with him proved to be an illusion. I had conceived of him […] as being tall, commanding, and as the advance notices of him, a sliver-tongued orator. I found him, however, to be the opposite of my mental picture; short, squat, unpretentious […].
A painting.
There was a picture hanging above the fireplace.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
  Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.
A photograph.
I took a picture of the church.
(dated) A motion picture.
Casablanca is my all-time favorite picture.
(in the plural, informal) ("the pictures") Cinema (as a form of entertainment).
Let's go to the pictures.
A paragon, a perfect example or specimen (of a category).
She's the very picture of health.
An attractive sight.
The garden is a real picture at this time of year.
The art of painting; representation by painting.
- 1862, Henry Barnard, “Sir Henry Wotton”, in American Journal of Education:
  any well-expressed image […] either in picture or sculpture
A figure; a model.
- 1655, James Howell, “To my Brother Dr. Howell”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC ↗:
  the young king's picture […] in virgin wax
Situation.
The employment picture for the older middle class is not so good.
You can't just look at the election, you've got to look at the big picture.
(MLE) A sample of an illegal drug.
If you want me to buy your weed I’ll need a picture.
(programming) A format string in the COBOL programming language.
- 1997, John Barnes, Ada 95 Rationale: The Language - The Standard Libraries, page 390:
  The COBOL restriction for the currency symbol in a picture string to be replaced by a single character currency symbol is a compromise solution.
- 1997, Roger Hutty, Mary Spence, Mastering COBOL Programming, page 20:
  To recapitulate, the pictures we have considered so far are: X – any character A — alphabetic characters and the space character […]