Portrait
['pɔːtrɪt] or ['pɔrtrət]
Definition
(noun.) any likeness of a person, in any medium; 'the photographer made excellent portraits'.
Checker: Sylvia--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The likeness of a person, painted, drawn, or engraved; commonly, a representation of the human face painted from real life.
(n.) Hence, any graphic or vivid delineation or description of a person; as, a portrait in words.
(v. t.) To portray; to draw.
Edited by Joanne
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Representation (of a face or a person, drawn or painted), likeness, daguerreotype, photograph, portraiture, MINIATURE.
Typist: Wilhelmina
Definition
n. the likeness of a person esp. of his face: a vivid description in words.—v.t. (obs.) to portray.—ns. Por′traitist a portrait-painter; Por′traiture a likeness: the drawing of portraits or describing in words: a collection of pictures.—v.t. Portray (pōr-trā′) to paint or draw the likeness of: to describe in words: (obs.) to adorn.—ns. Portray′al the act of portraying; Portray′er.—Composite portraits a method of indicating the facial characteristics of a family or group of persons while at the same time suppressing the peculiarities of individual members.
Checked by Godiva
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of gazing upon the portrait of some beautiful person, denotes that, while you enjoy pleasure, you can but feel the disquieting and treacherousness of such joys. Your general affairs will suffer loss after dreaming of portraits. See Pictures, Photographs, and Paintings.
Checker: Nellie
Examples
- Then she said, with a slight touch of irritation: I don't care to accept a portrait from Paul Morpeth. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- He laughed heartily at my feeble portrait of that gentleman, and said he was a man to know, and he must know him. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Your eyes turned across to the unframed portrait of Henry Ward Beecher which stands upon the top of your books. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I did not say she was as beautiful as you are, said Mr. Ned, venturing to look from the portrait to its rival. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He was sitting in an excellent attitude for having his portrait taken; and here it is. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Portrait of a gentleman on an elephant. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- On the other hand the Corporation of New York commissioned him to paint the portrait of Lafayette, who was then visiting America. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- It is a portrait from the life, I presume? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Look at his portrait, darling, look at his portrait, that his mother has done of him. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- She had had a little black profile of him done for a shilling, and this was hung up by the side of another portrait over her bed. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Mr. Bounderby closed the door, and stood before the fire; projecting himself after his old explosive manner into his portrait—and into futurity. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- It was the face of a woman cut out of a portrait. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Completing his resemblance to a man who was sitting for his portrait, Mr. Lorry dropped off to sleep. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- You're like the pictures on the walls of a deserted house: 'The Portrait of a Gentleman. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Did he give you this portrait? Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- I believe I could make an independent fortune in a few years if I devoted myself exclusively to portraits, so great is the desire for good portraits in the different country towns. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Mr. Weevle reverts from this intelligence to the Galaxy portraits implicated, and seems to know the originals, and to be known of them. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He lived at the house of Benjamin West, and painted, and his portraits were shown at the Royal Academy and at the Society of Artists. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- His very smile was cunning, as if he had been studying smiles among the portraits of his misers. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Some time ago, says a correspondent of _La Nature_, I was walking around in a side show in which were exhibited mechanical portraits, when I was surprised to hear myself called: ‘Monsieur! William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- These sketches gave him a local reputation, and his friends were not surprised when at seventeen he left Lancaster to seek his fortune as a painter of portraits and miniatures in Philadelphia. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- His efforts to paint historical pictures rather than portraits, and his share in paying off certain debts of his father’s, had made great inroads on the money he had saved. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- It was in 1840 that portraits were first taken by the Daguerreotype process in this country. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- It looks in at the windows and touches the ancestral portraits with bars and patches of brightness never contemplated by the painters. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Lord Hertford showed us a vast collection of gold and silver coins, portraits, drawings, curious snuff-boxes and watches. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Very good; I see by these portraits that you take a strong interest in the fashionable great, sir? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- This he found, and he wrote to his parents from Concord, New Hampshire, I have painted five portraits at $15 each, and have two more engaged and many talked of. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- He is like the fine old Crichley portraits before the idiots came in. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The voices of our dead ancestors, whose portraits hang on the wall, and the eloquent words of Demosthenes and Cicero would be preserved to us. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
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