limn
/lɪm/
limn verb: to draw or paint; to delineate.
Verb
limn (third-person singular simple present limns, present participle limning, simple past and past participle limned)
- To draw or paint; to delineate.
- Who then to frail Mortality ſhall truſt, / But limns in Water, or but writes in Duſt.a. 1627, Francis Bacon, “[Poems Found among the Papers of Sir Henry Wotton.] The World.”, in Henry Wotton, edited by Izaac Walton [i.e., Izaak Walton], Reliquiæ Wottonianæ: Or, A Collection of Lives...
- Then the Painter, according to the pattern of ſome living thing, portraieth [draweth out] the picture groſly; afterward he reſembleth it to the life, and with his pencil limneth it with different painting colors.1652, J[ohn] A[mos] Comenius, “Of Opticks [Eye-craft,] and Painting”, in Tho[mas] Horn[e], transl., edited by Joh[n] Robotham, W[illiam] D[ugard], and G. P., Janua Linguarum Reserata: Sive, Omnium...
- Synonyms:
- depict
- To illuminate, as a manuscript; to decorate with gold or some other bright colour.
- Some of her [Elizabeth Barton's] Revelations were no better than ſilly Tales: Such was a certain Tale of Mary Magdalen, delivering her a Letter from Heaven, that was limned with golden Letters: which indeed was written by a Monk of St. Auguſtines, Canterbury: and another at Calais.1721, John Strype, chapter XXV, in Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward...
- Synonyms:
- enlimn
limn meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
limn in Tamil
- சித்திரி
limn in Urdu
- آبی رنگوں سے رنگنا
limn in Bengali
- চিত্রিত করা, বর্ণনা করা
limn in Kannada
- ಬಣ್ಣಹಚ್ಚು, ತಿಟ್ಟಬರೆ
Examples of limn in a sentence
- Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective.1661 November 1, Thomas Browne, “[Domestic Correspondence.] Dr. Browne to His Son Thomas.—Norwich, Nov. 1, [1661.]”, in Simon Wilkin...
- Thou limnest well, / Were I to paint, I should shew you happy.1846, Charles Devonshire, The Sorceress of Saragossa; a Play, in Five Acts, Falmouth, Cornwall: Printed by Fred H. Earle, […], →OCLC, act...
- This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud / Of his soul writ and limned; […]1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Five English Poets. II. William Blake. (To Frederick Shields, on His Sketch of Blake’s Work-room and...
- [S]he laughs—in golden tones; she sleeps—like a fragrant lily; she dresses—limning her eyebrows like those of the silkworm moth.1905, Herbert A[llen] Giles, “Childbirth, Childhood, and the Position of Woman”, in Adversaria Sinica, number 1, Shanghai: Messrs. Kelly &...
Synonyms of limn
Forms of limn
| third-person singular present | limns |
|---|---|
| present participle | limning |
| past participle | limned |
| past | limned |
| alternative form (obsolete) | limne |
Origin of limn
From Middle English limnen, limyne, lymm, lymn, lymne (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), a variant of luminen (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), short form of enluminen (“to shed light on, illuminate; to enlighten; to make bright or clear; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript); to depict, describe; to adorn or embellish with figures of speech or poetry; to make famous, glorious, or illustrious”), from Old French enluminer (“to brighten, light up; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript)”), from Latin illūminō (“to brighten, light up; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside’)) + lūminō (“to brighten, illuminate; to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; (poetic) brightness”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine; to see”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).
Words formed from limn
Words that rhyme with limn
Questions about limn
- What does limn mean?
- Limn means to draw or paint; to delineate.
- What is limn in Tamil?
- Limn in Tamil is சித்திரி. See Limn meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use limn in a sentence?
- Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective.
- What part of speech is limn?
- Limn is a verb.
- How do you pronounce limn?
- Limn is pronounced /lɪm/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of limn?
- The past tense of limn is limned.
Words near limn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: limn (page history and authors); limn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); limn (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); limn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); limn (Kannada 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-limn.oga.
Cite this entry: “limn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/limn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.