Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.
  • noun An outline that appears dark against a light background. synonym: outline.
  • transitive verb To cause to be seen as a silhouette; outline.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, a portrait in black or some other uniform tint, sometimes varied as to the bailor other parts by lighter lines or a lightening of shade, showing the profile as cast by a candle on a sheet of paper; hence, any opaque portrait, design, or image in profile.
  • noun Opaque representation or exhibition in profile; the figure made by the shadow or a shadowy outline of an object; shadow.
  • To represent or exhibit in silhouette; make or bring out a shaded profile or outline view of: used chiefly or only in the past participle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A representation of the outlines of an object filled in with a black color; a profile portrait in black, such as a shadow appears to be.
  • transitive verb Recent To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An illustrated outline filled in with a solid color(s), usually only black, and intended to represent the shape of an object without revealing any other visual details; a similar appearance produced when the object being viewed is situated in relative darkness with brighter lighting behind it; a profile portrait in black, such as a shadow appears to be.
  • verb To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb project on a background, such as a screen, like a silhouette
  • noun a drawing of the outline of an object; filled in with some uniform color
  • noun an outline of a solid object (as cast by its shadow)
  • verb represent by a silhouette

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, after Étienne de Silhouette, (1709–1767), French finance minister.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French silhouette

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