adumbration

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“
It had become to his view so dim an adumbration--he was sure of this, and it pressed some spring of melancholy mirth--that it didn't seem worth putting away, and he left it leaning against a table as if it had been a blank canvas or a "preparation" to be painted over.

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Definitions (6)

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  1. The act of adumbrating or making a shadow or faint resemblance.
  2. Figuratively, a faint sketch; an imperfect representation; something that suggests by resemblance, or shadows forth; a foreshadowing. Our knowledge is … at best a faint confused adumbration. Glanville, Scep. Sci. Belief comes into existence when man is not reasonable enough to have a theory about anything, while he is still mainly a feeling animal, possessing only some adumbrations or instincts of thought. Keary, Prim. Belief, p. 23.
  3. In heraldry, the shadow only of a figure, outlined, and painted of a color darker than the field. Shadow, however, has no proper place in heraldry. It is a modern abuse.

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Examples (50)

  • There would never have been any inquiry without this adumbration, there would never have been any knowledge without it. —  Mr. Sammler's Planet
  • As I write this week's challenge to intellectual adumbration and not-infrequent factual improbability called Parting Glances, it's two days after April Fools 'Day. —  pridesource.com/Between The Lines News
  • Mentally mingle the best of Tate and Bedser; length, pace, swing, then add a tincture of Orielly, then maybe some adumbration will emerge or loom of Barnes in full spate. —  Cricket Web - Latest News
  • Computer scientists have known for sometime, at least for 60 years, that simple systems are capable of universal computation, given only as much "programming" as is required by a statement of initial conditions, an adumbration ( "netlist") of the material properties of the computing elements, and a dynamical law over all. —  Telic Thoughts
  • The following is from an educated adumbration of the entire conference, including Keynote speakers and a summary of their presentations and crucial quotes form the players themselves. —  WordPress.com News
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/ædəmˈbreɪʃən/
by Grant Barrett

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