Library / English Dictionary

DELINEATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Represented accurately or precisely

Synonyms:

delineate; delineated; represented

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

depicted; pictured; portrayed (represented graphically by sketch or design or lines)

described (represented in words especially with sharpness and detail)

diagrammatic; diagrammatical (shown or represented by diagrams)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Describe in vivid detail

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "delineate" is one way to...):

depict; describe; draw (give a description of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

delineation (a graphic or vivid verbal description)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a mark or lines on a surface

Example:

trace the outline of a figure in the sand

Synonyms:

delineate; describe; draw; line; trace

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "delineate" is one way to...):

mark (make or leave a mark on)

Verb group:

draw (engage in drawing)

draw (represent by making a drawing of, as with a pencil, chalk, etc. on a surface)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "delineate"):

construct (draw with suitable instruments and under specified conditions)

inscribe (draw within a figure so as to touch in as many places as possible)

circumscribe (draw a line around)

circumscribe (to draw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersect)

write (mark or trace on a surface)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

delineation (representation by drawing or painting etc)

delineation (a drawing of the outlines of forms or objects)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Trace the shape of

Synonyms:

delineate; limn; outline

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "delineate" is one way to...):

draw (represent by making a drawing of, as with a pencil, chalk, etc. on a surface)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "delineate"):

lipstick (form by tracing with lipstick)

contour (form the contours of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

delineation (representation by drawing or painting etc)

delineation (a drawing of the outlines of forms or objects)

delineative (depicted in a recognizable manner)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Determine the essential quality of

Synonyms:

define; delimit; delimitate; delineate; specify

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "delineate" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "delineate"):

determine (fix in scope; fix the boundaries of)

redefine (give a new or different definition to)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

delineation (a graphic or vivid verbal description)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Show the form or outline of

Example:

The camera could define the smallest object

Synonyms:

define; delineate

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "delineate" is one way to...):

show (make visible or noticeable)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

delineation (representation by drawing or painting etc)

delineation (a drawing of the outlines of forms or objects)

delineative (depicted in a recognizable manner)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Their results report a new method of analyzing the codes found in RNA that can delineate human microbial communities and reveal how they operate.

(Microbes are at work in our bodies, and researchers have figured out what they're up to, National Science Foundation)

A method of delineating blood vessels by subtracting a tissue background image from an image of tissue plus intravascular contrast material that attenuates the X-ray photons.

(Digital Subtraction Angiography, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Senior author Dr Despoina Mavridou, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: This behavior is strongly reminiscent of the human 'divide and conquer' strategy, famously delineated by Niccolò Machiavelli in his book The Art of War and shows that bacteria are capable of very elaborate warfare tactics.

(Bacteria Can 'Divide and Conquer' to Vanquish Their Enemies, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Willoughby was all that her fancy had delineated in that unhappy hour and in every brighter period, as capable of attaching her; and his behaviour declared his wishes to be in that respect as earnest, as his abilities were strong.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I made my humblest acknowledgment to this illustrious person, for his great communicativeness; and promised, if ever I had the good fortune to return to my native country, that I would do him justice, as the sole inventor of this wonderful machine; the form and contrivance of which I desired leave to delineate on paper, as in the figure here annexed.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Afterwards, take a piece of smooth ivory—you have one prepared in your drawing-box: take your palette, mix your freshest, finest, clearest tints; choose your most delicate camel-hair pencils; delineate carefully the loveliest face you can imagine; paint it in your softest shades and sweetest lines, according to the description given by Mrs. Fairfax of Blanche Ingram; remember the raven ringlets, the oriental eye;—What! you revert to Mr. Rochester as a model!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)