Definition of picture in English:

picture

noun

1A painting or drawing.
‘draw a picture of a tree’
- ‘The various pictures, drawings and paintings had their captions in Irish.’
- ‘He writes and prints in periodicals verses, drawings and reproductions of pictures which he draws with a brush held in his mouth.’
- ‘More than a dozen original pictures (both drawings and paintings) of the dodo now exist.’
- ‘Those who were gifted at drawing or painting might contribute a picture.’
- ‘Starting at 9am, practise your drawing skills by painting Easter pictures to add to your Easter holiday memories.’
- ‘Animation is the time-consuming art of drawing pictures in sequences, which, when viewed rapidly, simulate motion.’
- ‘There are pictures, drawings, and even boxes with additional information.’
- ‘If you buy the upgrade package the cartoonist will draw pictures of the characters in your book, talking about you.’
- ‘Martin's pictures are mostly pen-and-ink drawings with occasional additions of watercolour.’
- ‘A table was provided with paper and writing materials, as well as marker pens for drawing pictures.’
- ‘His remarkable piano recitals and penchant for drawing detailed pictures are characteristic of someone with the condition.’
- ‘What about drawing pictures and leaving them in people's letterboxes?’
- ‘Drawing pictures are top of her list of favourite things at school.’
- ‘You can ask the children to create a different ending to the story or draw different pictures to illustrate what they have read.’
- ‘The girl has to stay at home in front of the table every day, drawing pictures and dreaming of going to school with her peers.’
- ‘Less than 100 pages of text, pictures and figure drawings are divided into ten chapters of unequal length.’
- ‘‘It's simple,’ he explains, going to the whiteboard and drawing pictures frantically.’
- ‘The walls were filled with pictures of birds, drawings, art, and anime.’
- ‘Drawing pictures or making statuettes is also unique to us humans.’
- ‘He told us that he loved hockey, baseball and drawing pictures.’
painting, drawing, sketch, print, canvas, delineation, cartoon, portrait, portrayal, illustration, artist's impression, artwork, depiction, likeness, representation, image, icon
View synonyms
1. 1.1A photograph.
  ‘we were warned not to take pictures’
  ‘The photographer wants to take pictures of me with my laptop.’
  ‘A production photographer wants to take pictures of us next to the famous Emmerdale sign.’
  ‘The use of long lens photography to take pictures of people in private places without their consent is also forbidden.’
  ‘It was time for our actual wedding photographer to take pictures of us and various family members, so we just started doing that.’
  ‘Following the reticent trend of the day, he declined to talk to the press and asked photographers not to take pictures.’
  ‘Many church members have photographic equipment to take pictures and shoot video.’
  ‘Realising that it would make me look as if I had something to hide, I gave in and just let the photographer take pictures of me.’
  ‘Those days, photographers rarely went to studios to take pictures.’
  ‘The photographers want to take pictures of you and your mother together.’
  ‘Today, most people ask portrait photographers to take pictures of them and their families.’
  ‘Cars are routinely checked, cameras take pictures of licence plates and details of the ownership of a vehicle are matched with the driver.’
  ‘This camera was controlled by children via the Internet to take pictures of space which were then downloaded into the classroom.’
  ‘Speed cameras currently only take pictures of the number plates of speeding cars.’
  ‘Press photographers were there to take pictures.’
  ‘I need a photographer, since I can't take pictures of my face very well.’
  ‘The father of one of her friends is a photographer, and he had planned to take pictures of a group of them in their long dresses.’
  ‘A photographer was also summoned, to take pictures of the happy residents living in their sophisticated surroundings.’
  ‘A photographer arrives and wants to take pictures of me in the Gallery.’
  ‘And so I asked her if I could take pictures of her for my photography class.’
  ‘A friend send me some amazing pictures of 3D pavement drawings.’
  photograph, photo, shot, snap, snapshot, image, portrait, study
  View synonyms
2. 1.2A portrait.
  ‘she had her picture painted’
  ‘How could these critics of Raphael's unrealistic depictions of the world turn around and paint endless pictures of Ophelia?’
  ‘We've probably seen a picture or a portrait of them, or some depiction, which passes for a portrait.’
  ‘He then moved to Nigeria, where he lived for nearly 25 years, working as a magistrate and a high court judge and painting pictures of people he met.’
  ‘In fact, Goya was still painting pretty pictures of milkmaids and saucy profiles of his mistress.’
  ‘This won't do," the wife thought, and she went to town to have her picture painted.’
  ‘It was not unusual to be called out of the shop, and see a fair lady who wanted her picture painted.’
3. 1.3An image on a television screen.
  ‘television pictures of captured airmen’
  as modifier ‘poor picture quality’
  ‘Just as yesterday, our televisions screens relayed pictures of running battles with police.’
  ‘Anna stood outside beside the exit door, and watched the rows of television screens displaying pictures of the roller coaster ride.’
  ‘Fog, frost and even poor television pictures are some of the main problems.’
  ‘In television the picture stays pretty much the same no matter what size screen you are viewing on.’
  ‘Although the small size is attractive, the poor picture quality rules it out.’
  ‘The television pictures on Tuesday were nothing short of awful.’
  ‘Live television pictures showed two large fires some 150 meters apart.’
  ‘We have seen the television pictures of fishermen dumping dead monkfish, worth thousands of pounds, back into the sea.’
  ‘And we stood there just transfixed, as we watched those first television pictures coming in.’
  ‘Television pictures showed a bull pinning a man to a wall.’
  ‘Television pictures speak for the themselves - but what happens when you can't show images of disaster, and have to rely on word images?’
  ‘Television pictures showed the children, some as young as two, to be malnourished, neglected and living motionlessly in dirty cribs.’
  ‘The resulting television pictures of hungry children in his arms shocked the conscience of the nation.’
  ‘Around 40 local residents had to be evacuated and television pictures from the scene showed extensive damage to the building.’
  ‘He'd just run a story in which psychologists were talking about the impact television pictures of the war might be having on kids.’
  ‘From television pictures, I note that his body was found in an open area a few feet away from a heavily wooded area.’
  ‘He ought to have been made aware of the seriousness of the assault and shown the television pictures before facing the press conference.’
  ‘The television pictures showed a substantial amount of debris strewn by the lakeside where many trailers had been parked.’
  ‘Computers can be linked using a special modem, and television pictures can be sent and received.’
  ‘Television news pictures bring viewers to the heart of an event and can deliver an understanding of it.’
4. 1.4A cinema film.
  ‘the movie took five honours including best picture’
  ‘The only action in his war picture occurs at the very beginning of the film.’
  ‘The picture spawned several sequels aimed at the teenage horror market.’
  ‘There is a rule of thumb amongst movie buffs: the more scriptwriters the worse the picture.’
  ‘This is not intended as an action picture, so don't go expecting fast-paced montages.’
  ‘The one flaw, in my opinion, is that they didn't separate out studio releases from art house pictures.’
  ‘Some action pictures should dump the script and have the actors shoot at each other.’
  ‘We fell in love, then she went to France to do a picture for Alain Resnais called La Guerre est finie with Yves Montand.’
  ‘To compete in the packed world of independent film, a picture has to be creative and clever.’
  ‘Steven uses things that he learned from independent films and from foreign films back into studio pictures.’
  ‘The included featurette on the filming of the picture is a nice bonus.’
  ‘Both pictures salute the David Lynch school of film, with their penchant for blending reality with dreams.’
  ‘They seem a little too satisfied with the changes they made, but sound like they had fun filming the picture.’
  ‘There are extensive production notes that describe the huge tented in area used to film much of the picture.’
  ‘In the last two weeks, we've watched two of the classic film noir pictures: Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.’
  ‘The picture is free of film defects and artifacts, making for a very smooth look.’
  ‘This is an older film, and like many foreign films, done on a smaller budget than a Hollywood picture.’
  ‘Filmmakers have been to the Arctic before, shooting action pictures.’
  ‘Dinosaur becomes the first Disney animated picture in years not to feature any songs.’
  ‘Bardot started working in pictures that year, getting bit parts in obscure films.’
  ‘It has deservedly won the best picture Golden Globe and will no doubt inspire a new generation to read Virginia Woolf.’
  film, movie, feature film
  View synonyms
5. 1.5the picturesThe cinema.
  ‘I'm going to the pictures with my mates’
  ‘They were rowdy and shouting - they weren't interested in going to the pictures, they were looking for a fight.’
  ‘But apart from that, I like hanging out with my mates and going to the pictures.’
  ‘She's been chilling out, listening to music, going to the pictures, reading a lot.’
  ‘It's relaxing and pleasant - but so is going to the pictures or for a walk in the woods.’
  ‘Pippa enjoys kick-boxing, bowling, going to the pictures, pubs and clubs.’
  ‘It was then that mothers kept their children from going to the pictures on Saturday afternoon.’
  ‘The day of going to the pictures or circus for that special occasion has long gone, and now every child wants a bouncing castle to share with their friends for that big day.’
  ‘I told her when that happened I'd quit going to the pictures.’
  ‘It is a far cry from first half of the 20th century when going to the pictures was an integral part of a town's social activities.’
  ‘Perhaps, you should go back to the VCD rental shop or forget about the whole business of going to the pictures.’
  ‘I like to swim, BBQs and fishing around the lake and going to the pictures.’
  ‘In Karen's book, long-time resident Eva tells of going to the pictures.’
  ‘Whereas I don't think I would feel that now if I were going to the pictures a lot.’
  ‘This was the start of going to the pictures with my Grandma.’
  ‘Going to the pictures was a real treat in every way.’
  the cinema, the movies, the silver screen, the big screen
  View synonyms
2An impression of something formed from a description.
‘a full picture of the disaster had not yet emerged’
- ‘But let us hear Socrates out, and get a view of the full picture, as he argues that it would be wrong for him to escape into exile.’
- ‘Figures like this are exceptional in the extreme and give a completely unrepresentative impression of the national picture.’
- ‘The long-term picture is impressive in light of poor mechanisation levels in the country.’
- ‘Having read a lot of your work, you still retain that power to create pictures without reams of description.’
- ‘It was a really great vision, but it was not the full picture.’
- ‘The first is to present a fuller picture of himself, one that is more comfortable to the voter.’
- ‘The quick impression is of success, the full picture is of unbridled inadequacy.’
- ‘But reports of battles do not present a full picture of the Republic.’
- ‘Be sure to get the full picture by reading the other segments.’
- ‘And it seems like the authors got some key leads but not enough to quite present the full picture.’
- ‘Stuff happens, yes, but the news does not present a full picture of reality.’
- ‘It's going to take lots more research to get the full picture.’
- ‘The abiding problem is to do this but still to show that our often counter-intuitive beliefs are needed to provide the full picture.’
- ‘The full picture of how the government manipulated the legal justification for war, and political pressure placed on its most senior law officer, is revealed in the newspaper today.’
- ‘I've only tried to highlight broadly what the policy is about, but you need the company's literature to get the full picture.’
concept, idea, impression, mental picture, view, image, mental image, vision, visualization, notion, theory, abstraction
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3archaic A person or thing resembling another closely.
‘‘How excessively like her brother Miss Morland is!’ ‘The very picture of him, indeed!’’
- ‘He's the picture of his father, he's a bonny young Irish boy.’
- ‘"He's the picture of his old sire, Lazzarone," he continued, looking the horse over critically.’
- ‘She's the very picture of her. I saw it at once. When I first went into the room I could hardly believe my own eyes.’
personification, embodiment, epitome, essence, perfect example, soul, model
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verb

[with object]

1Represent in a photograph or picture.
‘he is pictured with party guests’
- ‘The poem begins along the right edge of a rice paper sheet next to a vertical strip of black and white photographs picturing Cha obscuring her face with her hands.’
- ‘He is pictured at the party with former employees.’
- ‘A calendar picturing semi-naked men, shot in aid of a village school, has caused uproar after proving too hot to handle.’
- ‘In particular he spots a photo strip picturing his son with this man and presumes from this photographic evidence that the man is his son's murderer.’
- ‘He also shot images of girls walking home and a 10-year-old girl was pictured rollerblading after he hid behind a wall to film her.’
- ‘In one scene, two homeless men are filmed fighting in a public toilet while another is pictured pulling out his own teeth with pliers.’
- ‘The lanes pictured are representative of at least six independent samples.’
- ‘It has proved useful in studying and picturing mountains, skies, rainfall, coastal lines, artificial scenery, and designs and patterns through computers.’
- ‘He is pictured here wearing his second pair of hiking boots.’
- ‘Though they aren't pictured here, they placed highly in tastings.’
- ‘Not pictured here, but are included, is the shoulder strap.’
- ‘"Also pictured in the photo is an object from the collection of the Genesee Country Museum.’
- ‘Large timbers were used to frame many of the beds pictured on these pages.’
- ‘The boreal forest also includes dry northern forest, as pictured on pages 28 and 30.’
- ‘Forget the people you see in front of the camera or pictured on a CD cover.’
- ‘The competition question was: can you guess what is pictured in the photo below?’
- ‘The design, however, would be different from that pictured in this article.’
- ‘The information is disgusting and false, " said Jack, who was pictured wearing a bright blue shirt.’
- ‘The most welcome sighting was our first Chipping Sparrow of the year, pictured to the right.’
- ‘She is pictured in front of the centre with her daughter Adelle.’
photograph, get a photo of, get a photograph of, take a photo of, take a photograph of, take someone's photo, take someone's picture, get a picture of, take a picture of, get a snap of, get a snapshot of, take a snap of, take a snapshot of, take, snap, shoot, get a shot of, take a shot of
paint, draw, paint a picture of, sketch, depict, delineate, portray, catch, catch a likeness of, show, illustrate, reproduce, render, represent
View synonyms
1. 1.1Describe in a certain way.
  ‘biographers have pictured him as a St Francis’
  ‘It is usually pictured in the form of an elk, less often as a bear.’
  ‘It is therefore imperative that your staff members know how they are being described and pictured.’
  ‘I see you're trying to picture this in terms of a cinematic story that can be told on a screen.’
  ‘As far as this cryptic description goes, it pictures things perfectly.’
  ‘In other words, people are pictured as valuing goods in terms of the bundles of attributes which these possess.’
  ‘He shoots sympathetically, an arresting contrast with the extreme situations pictured.’
  ‘Now they may be willing to listen to quite a lot of descriptive talk about the objects and events pictured in the books.’
  ‘In the film, he's pictured as an often-hard man driven mostly by the painful realities of his culture.’
  ‘She was pictured as a woman arched on her toes and fingertips over the earth - her body, a star-filled sky.’
  ‘The Tree was pictured as having seven roots reaching down into the earth and seven branches extending up toward the heavens, thus symbolizing man's relationship to both earth and heaven.’
  ‘Following the lead of one Thomas Aquinas, it was thought that the unicorn probably had attributes of both: thus he was pictured as being a goat with a horse's head, or having cleft hooves before and solid hooves behind.’
  ‘He was pictured as a leopard skin-clad dwarf with a huge head, prominent eyes and cheeks, a curly beard and an open mouth with his tongue sticking out.’
  ‘After the failed sacrifice, he was pictured as too weak to fight.’
  ‘He was pictured as black and green, the colors of Nile mud and vegetation.’
  ‘Bacchus in early likenesses was a bearded man, but later he was pictured as a youth.’
2. 1.2Form a mental image of.
  ‘she pictured Benjamin waiting’
  ‘Then picture him waiting by the window to greet you every morning as you get to work.’
  ‘My imagination won't let me picture Marilyn older than her 36 years.’
  ‘It means having the imagination to picture the world through the eyes of an 18-year-old.’
  ‘The stone edge of the quay is still to be seen, and it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to picture it as it was a century ago.’
  ‘I defy you to picture the scene without making the obvious mental leap.’
  ‘Selina, even with her wild imagination, never pictured her parents lives to be so dramatic in the beginning.’
  ‘Perhaps the best way to illustrate how much money this tax cut represents is to picture it as a stack of bills.’
  ‘Before every party, I pictured a scene of me talking, me being heard.’
  ‘Try to picture a Christmas party in which NOBODY gets stupidly drunk.’
  ‘When I was a student, I'd look at old photographs, and try to picture the scenes behind them.’
  ‘Why not picture yourself in a film and step onto a few of these famous sets?’
  ‘Generally speaking, one doesn't really picture film directors as an adventurous lot.’
  ‘Every time I close my eyes I keep picturing him.’
  ‘I sit there silently for a moment, picturing this.’
  ‘I can almost picture her face reddening and her eyes narrowing.’
  ‘I could just picture her face on the other line.’
  ‘I always pictured myself working at some high-class clothing store but never a diner.’
  ‘She could almost picture the innocent smile plastered on her best friend's face.’
  ‘For a split second he could see the tree that he had pictured in his mind.’
  ‘In my mind's eye I could picture him standing at our bedroom door.’
  visualize, see in one's mind, see in one's mind's eye, conjure up a picture of, conjure up an image of, imagine, conceive, call to mind, image, see, evoke
  View synonyms

Phrases

be in pictures

North American

Act in films or work for the film industry.
‘someone told her she ought to be in pictures’
- ‘Like a lot of youngsters, John decided early on that he wanted to be in pictures.’
- ‘They say that he's exactly the same now as when he was in radio, which I believe, because he's exactly the same now as when he was in pictures.’
- ‘Lottie says, ‘Ten years I've been in pictures and hope to be always in some way or other ’.’
- ‘Soon we had two camps in our class: those who wanted to be New York actors and those who wanted to be in pictures.’
- ‘If you or your child ever wanted to be in pictures -- this is your chance!’

be (or look) a picture

Be very pleasing to look at.
‘Kim looked a picture’
- ‘She heard Jingle Bells on the radio and when she looked up her face was a picture as she realised what she was listening to.’
- ‘The Stadium looks a picture at the moment - the best I have seen it to date.’
- ‘The town looks a picture at the moment as you are aware, but there is a substantial cost involved in making all this possible.’
- ‘Isn't the course looking a picture with the recent rain and watering making it a great joy playing on a golf course that within 12 months will be back to one of the best, with tees and greens to be completed mid-December?’
- ‘The stadiums were ready, the security teams were all in place and Athens was looking a picture.’
- ‘The opening chance of the match arrived after all of 18 minutes and it has to be said that the Park surface looked a picture under the glorious sunshine, which shone throughout the game.’
- ‘Nora looked a picture in her red suit and gave a wonderful performance - except it wasn't a performance - it was pure natural Nora, and everyone loved it.’
- ‘Maureen looked a picture when she found she got an A-level grade B in photography.’
- ‘Yesterday it looked a picture, a different place from the self-conscious, windswept venue of the opening days.’
- ‘The pitch looked a picture, covered by the light dew from the night before.’
- ‘My girls looked a picture as flower girls and performed their roles with aplomb.’

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’
- ‘He sees the big picture of the whole industry, and that generates a lot of respect.’
- ‘Decency paves the way, full of home sweet values which too often are overlooked in the big picture.’
- ‘Nolan has good reason to be excited but he is doing his best not to let the big game divert attention from the big picture.’
- ‘You're so entangled in it, and so concerned about the details of your current situation, that you miss the big picture.’
- ‘These, of course, are two very different areas of the big picture.’
- ‘Because of the way institutions work, an engineer ends up working on one part of a system but doesn't get to stand back and see the big picture.’
- ‘Happily glide from the big picture to the detail and back again.’
- ‘Their world belongs to the big picture, but even this view can often be clouded by the irritating inconvenience of detail.’
- ‘If it had been all lovely I might have left with an inability to see the big picture and would missed those pieces I really did enjoy.’
- ‘He loves such words, toying with them, searching out their roots, using them to illustrate the big picture.’

get the picture

informal

Understand a situation.
‘any trouble your father might have we can hide—d'you get the picture?’
- ‘To be honest, I believe it was more difficult to get the picture than to catch the carp.’
- ‘I realize that sounds completely revolting, but I think you get the picture.’
- ‘Scott didn't seem to get the picture, his brain still working on understanding what Jesse had just told him.’
- ‘This includes, buses, trains, lifts, public buildings, pubs, restaurants; I think you have probably got the picture.’
- ‘Think of the mob with flaming torches in the Frankenstein movie making their way up the mountain to the castle and you've got the picture.’
- ‘If this description inspires thoughts of a huge moon and bright stars, or warm sunrays of yellow and orange, then you are getting the picture.’
- ‘I think you're probably getting the picture here.’
- ‘And although the ads continue to be pervasive, she also said that some agencies are getting the picture.’
- ‘We're undoubtedly not getting the picture as full as it should be.’
- ‘How long do you think it will be before he gets the picture that I want him to go away!’

in the picture

Fully informed about something.
‘he called Forbes in London to put him in the picture’
- ‘Lee also demonstrates the tying of new patterns so that we are kept fully in the picture.’
- ‘Blogging fills in the picture of which only a small part is reported by journalists.’
- ‘I am indebted to a good friend for making sure I am kept in the picture.’
- ‘He will also be asking Smith to meet with the players this week to put them in the picture about what will happen over the coming weeks.’
- ‘He was put in the picture by the amused elderly ladies who gossip every evening in the entrance hall of the block.’
- ‘And as soon as the starting pistol was fired readers raced to the telephone and email to put me in the picture.’
- ‘Although I was proud of my parents, I needed some separation from them and to put myself in the picture.’
- ‘So if you have a mobile phone you can put it to good use by putting these individuals in the picture.’
- ‘I well remember my first day at senior school, your mates put you in the picture.’
- ‘We just want him to keep us in the picture with what's happening and what kind of deal he's after.’

out of the picture

So as to be no longer involved in a situation.
‘hostages were better left out of the picture’
- ‘I told him basically, if he was seeing somebody else, that I was out of the picture.’
- ‘But when you take the operations chief out of the picture, it does pose a lot of problems.’
- ‘We'd need him out of the picture to release the surplus for spending.’
- ‘However they had two players sent off and faded out of the picture in the second half - even failing to get a single score.’
- ‘This pattern of politics leaves people who don't fit into either category completely out of the picture.’
- ‘That's me and, I imagine, a few million others, well out of the picture.’
- ‘His team had been out of the picture in the first half with Hearts dominating possession and carving the vast majority of chances.’
- ‘Well all of that is true, and so most writers trying to convince other people of something tend to leave themselves out of the picture.’
- ‘However, he quickly found that he was not achieving results and that the future was in danger of arriving with him out of the picture.’
- ‘I was out of the picture and they were certainly looking to offload.’

a (or the) picture of —

The embodiment of a specified state or emotion.
‘she looked a picture of health’
- ‘This young footballer is the picture of health as he helps make a charity soccer tournament a success.’
- ‘He strode into the surgery briskly with no obvious breathlessness; he looked the picture of health.’
- ‘He was a dour and industrious man who inspired confidence and was the picture of respectability.’
- ‘Dolly sat fully erect, tasting the air, the picture of feline contentment.’
- ‘I sat in the corner of the kitchen, sipping carefully, the picture of misery.’
- ‘The dancers were a picture of grace, leaping with ease and elegance.’
- ‘Apart from that, she was a picture of dignity and grace, with the kind of beauty that grew resplendent with age.’
- ‘In those cruel, almost harrowing, final few moments, the Celtic manager was a picture of helplessness.’
- ‘Her face was a picture of concentration and she bit gently on her bottom lip.’
- ‘The youngster looks a picture of health as she chatters away happily like any normal one-year-old, with a cheeky grin guaranteed to melt your heart.’

(as) pretty as a picture

Very pretty.
- ‘She was as pretty as a picture - not beautiful, not stark raving mad like me, just pretty.’
- ‘He doesn't put Austen on a pedestal and he doesn't make a film that is pretty as a picture but lacking in any sense of vitality.’
- ‘The world really is as pretty as a picture for the professor, who has recreated the great photographic journeys of the Victorian Age.’
- ‘I walked over to him, pretty as a picture, meek as a mouse.’
- ‘‘She looks pretty as a picture, I think,’ my mother said genuinely and definitively.’
- ‘I'll bet if we saw the technical crew, or even the people at the craft services table, they'd also be pretty as a picture.’
- ‘She was a little bit on the cuddly side, but pretty as a picture.’
- ‘The resulting spring tabletop is as pretty as a picture.’
- ‘It was all as pretty as a picture and just a little too good to be true.’
- ‘She looked pretty as a picture herself out here in the sunshine - a ravishing rose amongst a garden of gorgeous roses.’

Origin

Late Middle English from Latin pictura, from pict- ‘painted’ (from the verb pingere).

Pronunciation

picture

/ˈpɪktʃə/

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