Picture I Extra Examples Situation Paint Shows Life

• he likes books with lots of pictures in them.
• a picture of flowers hung on the wall.
• the children were drawing pictures of their pets.
• she wanted a famous artist to paint her picture (= a picture of herself).

picture

1. a painting or drawing, etc. that shows a scene, a person or thing
• He likes books with lots of pictures in them.
• A picture of flowers hung on the wall.
• The children were drawing pictures of their pets.
• She wanted a famous artist to paint her picture (= a picture of herself).

Extra Examples

• It's a picture of a country village.
• It's a picture of the Grand Canyon.
• The book has simple stories and pictures to colour in.
• The story is told in pictures.
2. a photograph
• to take a picture
• We had our picture taken in front of the hotel.
• The picture shows the couple together on their yacht.
• She posted a picture of the two of them on her Facebook page.
• Have you got any pictures of your trip?
• The star shared the picture on Twitter.
• to upload/send/tweet a picture

Extra Examples

• I can't see you in the picture.
• I got some good pictures of the procession.
• This picture shows the man with his family.
• His picture appeared in the local paper.
3. an image on a television screen
• harrowing television pictures of the famine
• You are looking at live pictures of midtown Manhattan.
• poor picture quality
4. a description that gives you an idea in your mind of what something is like
• We've only got scraps of information, not the full picture.
• The writer paints a gloomy picture of the economy.
• a bleak/grim picture of the future
• a clear/an accurate/a complete picture of these events
• The police are trying to build up a picture of what happened.
• From news reports a picture emerges of a country in crisis.
• The TV report painted a much rosier picture of the employment situation than research shows to be the case.

Extra Examples

• The book gives a vivid picture of life in Victorian England.
• Through interviews and old photos we put together a composite picture of life in the village a hundred years ago.
• They're trying to build up a detailed picture of the incident.
• What emerges is a complex picture of family rivalry.
• From newspaper reports a picture emerges of a country barely under control.
• a composite picture of life a hundred years ago
• My visits enabled me to build up a broad picture of the culture.
• The figures reveal a disturbing picture of the state of our schools.
5. a mental image or memory of something
• I have a vivid picture of my grandfather smiling down at me when I was very small.
• He uses imagery to form mental pictures within the mind of the reader.

Extra Examples

• She had formed a picture of what the place would look like and was very disappointed.
• I had a sudden and chilling mental picture of him being interrogated in one of their prisons.
• The smell of the sea conjures up pictures of my youth.
• I tried to form a mental picture of the building being described.
6. the general situation relating to somebody/something
• Just a few years ago the picture was very different.
• The overall picture for farming is encouraging.
• The documentary was interesting but it didn't give the full picture.
7. a film
• SEE ALSO motion picture
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/motion-picture
• The movie won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
• I believe her husband's in pictures (= he acts in movies or works in the movie industry).
8. the cinema
• Shall we go to the pictures tonight?
9. very pretty
• She’s as pretty as a picture.
10. to look very beautiful or special
• The garden looks a picture in the summer.
11. to look extremely healthy, guilty, unhappy, etc.
12. the situation as a whole
• Right now forget the details and take a look at the big picture.
13. to understand a situation, especially one that somebody is describing to you
• ‘I pretended that I hadn't heard.’ ‘I get the picture.’
14. involved/not involved in a situation
• Morris is likely to win, with Jones out of the picture now.
15. to describe somebody/something in a particular way; to give a particular impression of somebody/something
• The report paints a vivid picture of life in the city.
• Journalists paint a grim picture of conditions in the camps.

Extra Examples

• He didn't paint a very pretty picture of city life.
• The report paints a dismal picture of the government's economic record.
16. to give somebody the information they need in order to understand a situation
• Just to put you in the picture—there have been a number of changes here recently.

Word Origin

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