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 adumbrātus "represented in outline", from adumbrāre "cast a shadow on", from umbra "shadow". (Wiktionary)
- Latin adumbrāre, adumbrāt-, to represent in outline : ad-, ad- + umbra, shadow. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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 269 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abasia, abask, abb, abba, abbatial, abra and 1214 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 202 more...
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Outwardly secondary
vitiate, compenetrate, ingeminate, prolific, philoprogenitive, diaphaneity, diaphanous, saturnine, tepidness, inanity, knavery, adumbrate and 2 more...
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[Uni][verse]
to be used.
windfall, alkahest, tektite, cislunar, conatus, pansophy, universe, macrocosm, perfect storm, star-scattered, cynosure, stellate and 22 more...
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Cool Words
Words I'd like to see enter common usage.
fricatrice, inchoate, imparlance, apothegm, ductile, parley, frisson, quiescent, redolent, insouciance, feckless, caviling and 25 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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Exquisite Words
Words that need no description other than their own exquisiteness, either in sound or meaning.
effluvia, petrichor, velvet, leather, crepuscular, sillage, psithurism, strikhedonia, tibialoconcupiscent, tarantism, daduchos, umbrage and 14 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for adumbrate.
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