Image /(ĭm"ā̇j; 48)/

Im·age

Image

n.
  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.
    Whose is this image and superscription?
    — Matt. xxii. 20.
    This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
    And God created man in his own image.
    — Gen. i. 27.
  2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid; an idol.
    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.
  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?
  5. A picture, example, or illustration, often taken from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject; usually, an extended metaphor. (Rhet.)
  6. 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. (Opt.)

Phrases & Compounds
Electrical image
See under Electrical.
Image breaker
one who destroys images; an iconoclast.
Image graver
a sculptor.
Image worship
the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images themselves.
Image Purkinje
the image of the retinal blood vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane.
Virtual image
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.

Image

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.
  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.