picture

noun

pic·ture | \ ˈpik-chər

Definition of picture

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a design or representation made by various means (such as painting, drawing, or photography)

2a : a description so vivid or graphic as to suggest a mental image or give an accurate idea of something the book gives a detailed picture of what is happening

b : a mental image

3 : image, copy he was the picture of his father she was the very picture of health

4a : a transitory visible image or reproduction

b : motion picture

c pictures plural : movies

5 : tableau sense 2

6 : situation took a hard look at his financial picture

picture

verb

pictured; picturing\ˈpik-chə-riŋ,

ˈpik-shriŋ \

Definition of picture (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to paint or draw a representation, image, or visual conception of : depict also : illustrate

2 : to describe graphically in words

3 : to form a mental image of : imagine

Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about picture

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Examples of picture in a Sentence

Noun

I hung the picture on the wall. The book has a lot of pictures. Draw a picture of your house. The staff looked at the financial picture of the company. The overall economic picture is improving.

Verb

I can still picture the house I grew up in. I can't picture changing jobs at this point in my life. Picture what it would be like if you didn't own a car. Can you picture him as a teacher?

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Cheviot City Hall will then come out to take a picture of your sheep during the first two weeks of August. — Justin Reutter, Cincinnati.com, "Ewe won't believe how Cheviot is celebrating its baaah-centennial," 12 July 2018 Take a picture and look it up on your phone, or read a plant book. — Kenneth Setzer, miamiherald, "Houseplant advice for the millennial (or anyone) who doesn’t have a green thumb," 11 July 2018 In a tweet, the company advised users to wait to check in for the outage to be resolved, but said that anyone who purchased a ticket without the service could take a picture and send it in to be reimbursed. — Andrew Liptak, The Verge, "MoviePass says it will refund users who were affected by last night’s outage," 7 July 2018 Component maker Synaptics figured out how to take a picture of fingers by looking in between the phone's pixels; Qualcomm created an ultrasonic sensor capable of scanning not only though screens but also metal ... and even underwater. — Geoffrey Fowler, courant.com, "Future Phones: They Fold Like Napkins, Have 9 Cameras, Charge Over Thin Air," 6 July 2018 Find your scooter and unlock it by opening the app and taking a picture of the QR code on the handle. — Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, "Downtown gets the Bird with fun-to-ride scooters," 5 July 2018 It's become that outrageous, iconic piece that's not only easily recognizable, but sought-after by fashion girls looking to take a picture for the 'gram. — Marina Liao, Marie Claire, "Emily Ratajkowski's Jacquemus Straw Hat Stole the Show in Greece," 29 June 2018 Jarell took a picture and shared it on social media. — Breanna Edwards, The Root, "Black Actor Says He Was Kicked Out of Restaurant Because of Hoodie, White Customer in Similar Dress Was Allowed to Stay," 27 June 2018 Bird and Lime require riders to take a picture of their scooter in order to end the ride to make sure scooters are parked correctly. — Johana Bhuiyan, Recode, "Scooter companies tried to barge into San Francisco and got kicked out. Now they’re making big promises to get legal.," 26 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Just picture them meeting up for the championship (and fine, go ahead and picture Ronaldo ripping off his shirt after winning his first World Cup, too). — Sean Gregory, Time, "32 Teams Entered, 16 Remain. Your Ultimate Guide to the World Cup Knockout Stage," 29 June 2018 One can scarcely picture him in a gilded eponymous tower. — Rondi Adamson, WSJ, "A ‘Tin-Pot Northern Trump’? Hardly," 3 June 2018 Just picture me with my curly hair and a gap in my teeth and my little school uniform with Keds on, looking up like, 'Hi,' at these very, uh, provocative women. — Meghan Markle, Fox News, "Meghan Markle's 'humble' pre-Hollywood beginnings revealed," 9 May 2018 Between December 2016 and August 2017, their instruments captured sounds from several eruptions (including the 28 May 2017 one pictured above). — Sid Perkins, Science | AAAS, "Listen to the first ever sounds of volcanic thunder on record," 13 Mar. 2018 This quintessentially Emirati hotel, pictured above, might look just like an old-fashioned palace, but it was built in 2005. — Becca Endicott, ELLE Decor, "Here's Why Abu Dhabi Should Be Your Next Weekend Getaway," 25 Jan. 2018 Race to the bottom One way of thinking about the Democrats’ conundrum on race is to picture a bucket. — The Economist, "Demography is not destinyBuilding a multiracial coalition is more difficult than it seems," 12 July 2018 But if asked to picture the lives of contemporary urban Native Americans, might not many readers would draw a complete blank? — Joan Gaylord, The Christian Science Monitor, "'There There' weaves a powerful tale of contemporary urban Native Americans," 2 July 2018 As pictured by Day, Moss was a force of nature: a gust of April wind that lifts your skirt and tousles your hair. — Waldemar Januszczak, A-LIST, "Kate Moss: The Golden Girl," 1 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'picture.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.