Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Outline

Out′line′ (·līn′), n. 1. (a) The line which marks the outer limits of an object or figure; the exterior line or edge; contour. (b) In art: A line drawn by pencil, pen, graver, or the like, by which the boundary of a figure is indicated. (c) A sketch composed of such lines; the delineation of a figure without shading.

Painters, by their outlines, colors, lights, and shadows, represent the same in their pictures. Dryden.

2. Fig.: A sketch of any scheme; a preliminary or general indication of a plan, system, course of thought, etc.; as, the outline of a speech.

But that larger grief . . . Is given in outline and no more. Tennyson.

Syn. — Sketch; draught; delineation. See Sketch.

Out′line′, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Outlined; p. pr. & vb. n. Outlining.] 1. To draw the outline of.

2. Fig.: To sketch out or indicate as by an outline; as, to outline an argument or a campaign.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.