请输入您要查询的英文单词:

 

单词 adumbrated
释义

adumbrate

verb

ad·​um·​brate ˈa-dəm-ˌbrāt How to pronounce adumbrate (audio) a-ˈdəm- How to pronounce adumbrate (audio)
adumbrated; adumbrating

transitive verb

1
: to foreshadow vaguely : intimate
the social unrest that adumbrated the French Revolution
2
: to suggest, disclose, or outline partially
adumbrate a plan
3
: overshadow, obscure
bubbling optimism, not at all adumbrated by difficulties
adumbration
ˌa-(ˌ)dəm-ˈbrā-shən How to pronounce adumbrate (audio)
noun
adumbrative
a-ˈdəm-brə-tiv How to pronounce adumbrate (audio)
adjective
adumbratively adverb

Did you know?

You aren't likely to find adumbrate in children's stories or on the sports pages. That's not because this shady word is somehow off-color, but rather because it tends to show up most often in academic or political writing. In fact, some usage commentators find it too hard for "ordinary" use (although they are hard-pressed to define "ordinary"). Art and literary critics have long found it useful, and it's a definite candidate for those oft-published "lists of words you should know" (especially for vocabulary tests). You might remember adumbrate better if you know that it developed from the Latin verb adumbrare, which in turn comes from umbra, the Latin word for "shadow." To adumbrate, then, is to offer a shadowy view of something.

Synonyms

  • forerun
  • foreshadow
  • harbinger
  • herald
  • prefigure
See all Synonyms & Antonyms

Example Sentences

the strife in Bloody Kansas in the 1850s adumbrated the civil war that would follow
Recent Examples on the Web In between, works by contemporaries complicate superficial ideas about his meteoric genius, and small, delicate drawings teem with an abundance of ideas — paintings never made, thoughts adumbrated then abandoned. Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2019 Nothing in America’s tepid 19th-century contributions to European classical music adumbrated it; nor did the homely and sometimes hokey popular songs of Stephen Foster. Heather Mac Donald, National Review, 22 Aug. 2019 The helicopter crash, on the other hand, is a narrative dead end, merely adumbrating the portrait that Mr. Davenport will draw of Mr. Bezos as unflappable. Randall Stross, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2018

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin adumbrātus, past participle of adumbrāre "to shade, represent by means of light and shade, sketch, outline," from ad- ad- + -umbrāre, verbal derivative of umbra "shadow" — more at umbrage

First Known Use

1537, in the meaning defined at sense 1

adumbrated

verb

past tense of adumbrate
as in foreshadowed
to give a slight indication of beforehand the strife in Bloody Kansas in the 1850s adumbrated the civil war that would follow

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
  • foreshadowed
  • implied
  • prefigured
  • predicted
  • heralded
  • anticipated
  • suggested
  • foretold
  • harbingered
  • alluded
  • foresaw
  • foreran
  • prognosticated
  • presaged
  • prophesied
  • hinted
  • intimated
  • foreknew
  • forewarned
  • portended
  • foreboded
  • forecast
  • augured
  • promised
  • connoted
  • boded
  • forecasted
  • insinuated
  • forboded
随便看

 

英语词典包含469781条英英释义在线翻译词条,基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法,是英语学习的有利工具。

 

Copyright © 2004-2022 Newdu.com All Rights Reserved
更新时间:2024/12/23 17:17:53