silhouette

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.
2. n. An outline that appears dark against a light background. See Synonyms at outline.
3. v. To cause to be seen as a silhouette; outline: Figures were silhouetted against the setting sun.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. 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. Silhouette portraits wore very common throughout the early years of the nineteenth century, and arc often cut out of black paper.
2. n. Opaque representation or exhibition in profile; the figure made by the shadow or a shadowy outline of an object; shadow.
3. 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.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. v. To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. v. Recent To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. project on a background, such as a screen, like a silhouette
2. n. a drawing of the outline of an object; filled in with some uniform color
3. n. an outline of a solid object (as cast by its shadow)
4. v. represent by a silhouette