de ‧ pict /dɪˈpɪkt/ BrE AmE verb [transitive] formal
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: depictus , past participle of depingere , from pingere 'to paint' ]
to describe something or someone in writing or speech, or to show them in a painting, picture etc:
a book depicting life in pre-revolutionary Russia
depict somebody/something as something
The god is depicted as a bird with a human head.
—depiction /dɪˈpɪkʃ ə n/ noun [uncountable and countable]
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THESAURUS
▪ describe to talk or write about a person, place, event etc, in order to show what they are like:
Could you try and describe the man you saw?
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In her book, she describes her journey across the Sahara.
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Police described the attack as particularly violent.
▪ tell somebody about somebody/something to describe someone or something to someone. This phrase is more commonly used than describe in everyday spoken English:
So, tell me about your holiday!
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My friends have told me all about you!
▪ depict formal to describe someone or something in a piece of writing:
His stories depict life in Trinidad as seen through the eyes of a young boy.
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In this new biography she is depicted as a lonely and unhappy woman.
▪ portray/represent formal to describe someone or something in a particular way:
College teachers are often represented on television shows as slightly eccentric.
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The magazine has been criticized for the way it portrays women.
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The treatment has been portrayed as a painless way of curing cancer, which is simply not true.
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Police have represented her as a willing participant in the crimes.
▪ characterize somebody/something as something formal to describe someone or something by emphasizing one particular quality or feature about them:
He characterized himself as ‘an average American’.
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The successful schools were characterized as innovative and creative.
▪ paint somebody/something as something to describe someone or something, especially in a way that makes people believe something that is not true:
Not all young people are as bad as they’re painted in the press.
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We won, yet the media is painting it as a victory for our opponents.
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The woman was painted as having only a slight grasp of reality.
▪ paint a picture to describe a situation, so that people can get a general idea of what it is like:
Can you paint a picture of life in Japan for us?
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My uncle’s letters generally painted a rosy picture of how things were.
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The report painted a bleak picture of the management’s failures.