- Image
- Image Im"age ([i^]m"[asl]j; 48), n. [F., fr. L. imago,
imaginis, from the root of imitari to imitate. See {Imitate},
and cf. {Imagine}.]
1. An imitation, representation, or similitude of any person,
thing, or act, sculptured, drawn, painted, or otherwise
made perceptible to the sight; a visible presentation; a
copy; a likeness; an effigy; a picture; a semblance.
[1913 Webster]
Even like a stony image, cold and numb. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Whose is this image and superscription? --Matt. xxii. 20. [1913 Webster]
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
And God created man in his own image. --Gen. i. 27. [1913 Webster]
2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid; an idol. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. --Ex. xx. 4, 5. [1913 Webster]
3. Show; appearance; cast. [1913 Webster]
The face of things a frightful image bears. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn by the fancy; a conception; an idea. [1913 Webster]
Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or great? --Prior. [1913 Webster]
5. (Rhet.) A picture, example, or illustration, often taken from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject; usually, an extended metaphor. --Brande & C. [1913 Webster]
6. (Opt.) The figure or picture of any object formed at the focus of a lens or mirror, by rays of light from the several points of the object symmetrically refracted or reflected to corresponding points in such focus; this may be received on a screen, a photographic plate, or the retina of the eye, and viewed directly by the eye, or with an eyeglass, as in the telescope and microscope; the likeness of an object formed by reflection; as, to see one's image in a mirror. [1913 Webster]
{Electrical image}. See under {Electrical}.
{Image breaker}, one who destroys images; an iconoclast.
{Image graver}, {Image maker}, a sculptor.
{Image worship}, the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images themselves.
{Image Purkinje} (Physics), the image of the retinal blood vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane.
{Virtual image} (Optics), a point or system of points, on one side of a mirror or lens, which, if it existed, would emit the system of rays which actually exists on the other side of the mirror or lens. --Clerk Maxwell. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
