Word.ws English Dictionary

depicture

depicture verb: to make a picture or representation of.

Verb

depicture (third-person singular simple present depictures, present participle depicturing, simple past and past participle depictured)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To make a picture or representation of.
    • The bed appointed for the prince to rest himselfe, was of blacke Ebonie enchased which Rubies, Diamons and Carbun[c]ls […] on which by degrees mans state from infancie to his olde age was plainly depictured,1596, Thomas Lodge, A Margarite of America, London: John Busbie
    • I next mounted through a large painted staircase, where several persons were depictured in caricatura;1749 Henry Fielding, A Journey from this World to the Next, Book 1, Chapter 3, in The Works of Henry Fielding, London: J. Johnson et al., 1806, Volume 4, pp. 339-340
    Synonyms:
    depict, portray, render
  2. (archaic, transitive) To represent in words.
    • The modern Fiction which depictures the son of Cytherea [i.e. Eros] with a bandage round his eyes, is not without a spiritual meaning. There is a sweet and holy Blindness in Christian LOVE […]1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Moral and Religious Aphorisms”, in Aids to Reflection, London: William Pickering, published 1836, page 85
    • You have seen some of its [the dispute’s] disastrous working upon the men: you cannot see it all, for it would take a whole volume to depicture it.1862, Ellen Wood (as Mrs. Henry Wood), Life’s Secret, London: Charles W. Wood, 1867, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 192
    Synonyms:
    describe, depict, portray
  3. (archaic, transitive) To give visual evidence of (referring to a person's facial expression or appearance)
    • […] he entered the church with a proud firm step, and with a countenance which depictured his inward triumph;1790, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 12, in A Sicilian Romance, volume 2, London: T. Hookham, page 115
    • A look, depicturing such agony as Ingram never saw before, in the face of man, accompanied this declaration on the part of his friend […]1845, Thomas Cooper, “London ’Venture; or, The Old Story Over Again”, in Wise Saws and Modern Instances, volume 1, London: Jeremiah How, page 58
  4. (archaic, transitive) To form a mental image of.
    • […] I would depicture her, a foiled and wistful little wraith, very lonely in eternity […]1909, James Branch Cabell, chapter 30, in The Cords of Vanity, New York: Doubleday, Page, page 326
    Synonyms:
    imagine, picture

Noun

depicture (plural depictures)

  1. (archaic) The act or result of depicturing something or someone.
    • The conception of a misdeed operating through several generations […] was a novel one at the time; this graphic depicture of the past at work upon the present has anticipated a great deal of the history and criticism of the following twenty-five years […]1876, George Parsons Lathrop, chapter 8, in A Study of Hawthorne, Boston: James R. Osgood, page 237
    • No pen could do them justice; and, among painters, only the brush of a Corot could attempt their depicture without depriving them of their exquisite, their almost evanescent, softness.1914, Arnold Haultain, chapter 8, in Of Walks and Walking Tours, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 31
    Synonyms:
    depiction

depicture meaning in Tamil

depicture in Tamil

விரித்து விளக்கல், சொல்லோவியம்

Synonyms of depicture

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of depicture

Forms of depicture

Verb
third-person singular presentdepictures
present participledepicturing
past participledepictured
pastdepictured
Noun
pluraldepictures

Origin of depicture

From de- + picture; formed under the influence of depict.

Words formed from depicture

Questions about depicture

What does depicture mean?
Depicture means to make a picture or representation of.
What is depicture in Tamil?
Depicture in Tamil is விரித்து விளக்கல், சொல்லோவியம். See Depicture meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is depicture?
Depicture can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of depicture?
The past tense of depicture is depictured.

Words near depicture in the dictionary

  1. depictment
  2. depictments
  3. depictor
  4. depictors
  5. depicts
  6. depicture
  7. depictured
  8. depicturement
  9. depicturements
  10. depictures
  11. depicturing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: depicture (page history and authors); depicture (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “depicture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/depicture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.