Image

Im′age (ĭm′āj; 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.

Even like a stony image, cold and numb. Shak.

Whose is this image and superscription? Matt. xxii. 20.

This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Shak.

And God created man in his own image. Gen. i. 27.

2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid; an idol. Chaucer.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. Ex. xx. 4, 5.

3. Show; appearance; cast.

The face of things a frightful image bears. Dryden.

4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn by the fancy; a conception; an idea.

Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or great? Prior.

5. (Rhet.) A picture, example, or illustration, often taken from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject; usually, an extended metaphor. Brande & C.

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.

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.

Im′age (ĭm′āj; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Imaged; p. pr. & vb. n. Imaging.] 1. To represent or form an image of; as, the still lake imaged the shore; the mirror imaged her figure. "Shrines of imaged saints." J. Warton.

2. To represent to the mental vision; to form a likeness of by the fancy or recollection; to imagine.

Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more. Pope.