Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give a sketchy outline of.
- v. To prefigure indistinctly; foreshadow.
- v. To disclose partially or guardedly.
- v. To overshadow; shadow or obscure.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To overshadow; partially darken or conceal.
- Figuratively, to give a faint shadow or resemblance of; outline or shadow forth; foreshadow; prefigure.
Wiktionary
- v. To foreshadow vaguely.
- v. To give a vague outline.
- v. To obscure or overshadow.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To give a faint shadow or slight representation of; to outline; to shadow forth.
- v. To overshadow; to shade.
WordNet 3.0
- v. describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of
- v. give to understand
Etymologies
- Latin adumbrāre, adumbrāt-, to represent in outline : ad-, ad- + umbra, shadow.
Examples
“Adumbrated – from adumbrate (always used in conjunction with an object)”
“And just as the fish and the reptile glimmeringly adumbrate man, so do these yearnings and desires adumbrate what man in himself calls "love," spelled all out in capitals.”
“All that I can think of as a remedy is benign neglect, which is an easier policy to adumbrate than to carry out.”
“And, since Ezra Levant was mentioned, let me note that his own attitudes in this respect, and those of his wretched hangers-on, adumbrate the fate of the disabled under Flanagan's cure-all free enterprise regime.”
“Historically, they adumbrate a business consolidation phase coming as well as a stall in stock market momentum.”
“Right or wrong, though, it is the nature of the appeal that the ads adumbrate that leaves me as distressed now as it did several hours ago.”
You report: Promotional Posters for the Traditional Latin Mass
“Hence, there was not really any late modem triumph of science over magic, so much as there was a natural dissolution of the latter into the former, as the power of science to accomplish what magic could only adumbrate became progressively more obvious.”
“Allow me to adumbrate the hair-splitter in denials (hid) contribution to this thread.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Those figures you adumbrate to support your point include AMs who live 6 hours away from Cardiff, or 300 miles, or whatever, so perforce one thing the figures doin;t actually show is that they're, as you claim , 'at the trough'.”
“I sought to argue—more accurately: adumbrate an argument—that, from a Catholic standpoint, we could move forward right in the gorilla's face.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘adumbrate’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 136 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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My daily Wordsheets
paramour, flail, addle, adduce, adduction, adenitis, adenocarcinoma, adhocracy, adiabatic, adipocyte, adiposity, postpone and 25 more...
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graphism
of or related to drawing—forms, tools, techniques, processes, practices, etc.
limn, vectorial, limned, synecdoche, adumbrate, lapis, colophon, grapheme, isogloss, sciagraphy, palimpsest, homunculus and 2 more...
milosrdenstvi A fancy way of saying 'sketch out' or something of the sort Dec 19, 2009
brtom "What adumbrates the neural coagulate, still sending its runners off, fetchingly, here and there."
John Latta, Isola di Rifiuti Jan 26, 2007