Definition of "picture" []

• A visual representation or image painted, drawn, photographed, or otherwise rendered on a flat surface. (noun)
• A visible image, especially one on a flat surface or screen: the picture reflected in the lake; focused the picture on the movie screen. (noun)
• A vivid or realistic verbal description: a Shakespearean picture of guilt. (noun)
• A vivid mental image. (noun)
• A person or object bearing a marked resemblance to another: She's the picture of her mother. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The picture in it is the first glance of the operator, as he selected it; whatever delicacy of detail told in the impression on his mind tells in the impression on the plate; whatever is more than that does not go to increase the richness of the result, _as picture_, but belongs to another sphere."
• "Walpole's story of the French lady who asked for her lover's picture; and when he demurred observing that, if her husband were to see it, it might betray their secret -- "O dear, no," she said -- just like Mr. Macaulay -- "I _will have the picture_, but it _need not be like_!""
• "You take a picture of her while she's pinking but screw it up, possibly because your hand is covered in blisters at that point, but you nevertheless want to thank her for all of her hard work so you post an alternative picture** of her, grab the napkins and the over-sized ruler and head home in triumph."