from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Image \Im"age\ ([i^]m"[asl]j; 48), n. [F., fr. L. imago,
imaginis, from the root of imitari to imitate. See {Imitate},
and cf. {Imagine}.]
1. An imitation, representation, or similitude of any person,
thing, or act, sculptured, drawn, painted, or otherwise
made perceptible to the sight; a visible presentation; a
copy; a likeness; an effigy; a picture; a semblance.
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Even like a stony image, cold and numb. --Shak.
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Whose is this image and superscription? --Matt.
xxii. 20.
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This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
--Shak.
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And God created man in his own image. --Gen. i. 27.
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2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid;
an idol. --Chaucer.
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Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . .
. thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. --Ex. xx.
4, 5.
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3. Show; appearance; cast.
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The face of things a frightful image bears.
--Dryden.
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4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn
by the fancy; a conception; an idea.
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Can we conceive
Image of aught delightful, soft, or great? --Prior.
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5. (Rhet.) A picture, example, or illustration, often taken
from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject;
usually, an extended metaphor. --Brande & C.
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6. (Opt.) The figure or picture of any object formed at the
focus of a lens or mirror, by rays of light from the
several points of the object symmetrically refracted or
reflected to corresponding points in such focus; this may
be received on a screen, a photographic plate, or the
retina of the eye, and viewed directly by the eye, or with
an eyeglass, as in the telescope and microscope; the
likeness of an object formed by reflection; as, to see
one's image in a mirror.
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{Electrical image}. See under {Electrical}.
{Image breaker}, one who destroys images; an iconoclast.
{Image graver}, {Image maker}, a sculptor.
{Image worship}, the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry
distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images
themselves.
{Image Purkinje} (Physics), the image of the retinal blood
vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane.
{Virtual image} (Optics), a point or system of points, on one
side of a mirror or lens, which, if it existed, would emit
the system of rays which actually exists on the other side
of the mirror or lens. --Clerk Maxwell.
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