rebus

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A puzzle or riddle consisting of words or phrases represented by figures or pictures of objects whose names resemble in sound those words or phrases or the syllables of which they are composed; an enigmatical representation of words by means of figures or pictures suggestive of them.
2. n. In heraldry:
3. n. A bearing or succession of bearings which make up the name or a word expressing the profession or office of the bearer. The origin of many bearings in early heraldry is such an allusion; and on the other hand many proper names have been derived from the bearings, these having been granted originally to persons having a name or territorial designation which a descendant, perhaps of a younger branch abandoned for the allusive surname suggested by the bearing: thus, in the case of the name Tremain, and the bearing of three human hands, either the bearing or the name may have originated the other. Also called allusive arms.
4. n. A motto in which a part of the phrase is expressed by representations of objects instead of by words. In a few rare cases the whole motto is thus given. Such mottos are not commonly borne with the escutcheon and crest, but form rather a device or impresa, as the figure of a sun-dial preceded by the words “we must,” meaning “we must die all,”
5. To mark with a rebus; indicate by a rebus.

Wiktionary

1. n. A kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words.
2. v. transitive To mark or indicate by a rebus.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A mode of expressing words and phrases by pictures of objects whose names resemble those words, or the syllables of which they are composed; enigmatical representation of words by figures; hence, a peculiar form of riddle made up of such representations.
2. n. (Her.) A pictorial suggestion on a coat of arms of the name of the person to whom it belongs. See Canting arms, under Canting.
3. v. To mark or indicate by a rebus.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a puzzle where you decode a message consisting of pictures representing syllables and words