silhouettes

Noun

silhouette (plural silhouettes)

1. An artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
   • She had a feeble pencil drawing of the vicarage in Dorsetshire, and silhouettes of her father and mother, which were hung up in the lodgings wherever she went.1860 January–June, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “In which Miss Prior is Kept at the Door”, in Lovel the Widower, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 60
2. (broadly) A dark outline of someone or something seen against a brighter background.
   • I could see a silhouette of a figure looking out from the window, but I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
3. (broadly) An outline of a garment as it appears on a wearer.
   • A-line is a classic silhouette for dresses and skirts.
4. (figuratively) A brief written description of someone or something; an outline, a sketch.
   • [A]t my elbow stood a tall man, young, though probably five or six years older than I—in other respects of an appearance the opposite to common-place; though just now, as I am not disposed to paint his portrait in detail, the reader must be content with the silhouette I have just thrown off; […]a. 1856 (date written), Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter III, in A[rthur] B[ell] Nicholls, editor, The Professor, a Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published...

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