image Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an iconic mental representation
    mental image.
    • her imagination forced images upon her too awful to contemplate
  2. noun (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world
    persona.
    • a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty
  3. noun a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
    picture; ikon; icon.
    • they showed us the pictures of their wedding
    • a movie is a series of images projected so rapidly that the eye integrates them
  4. noun a standard or typical example
    epitome; prototype; paradigm.
    • he is the prototype of good breeding
    • he provided America with an image of the good father
  5. noun language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
    trope; figure; figure of speech.
  6. noun someone who closely resembles a famous person (especially an actor)
    double; look-alike.
    • he could be Gingrich's double
    • she's the very image of her mother
  7. noun (mathematics) the set of values of the dependent variable for which a function is defined
    range; range of a function.
    • the image of f(x) = x^2 is the set of all non-negative real numbers if the domain of the function is the set of all real numbers
  8. noun the general impression that something (a person or organization or product) presents to the public
    • although her popular image was contrived it served to inspire music and pageantry
    • the company tried to project an altruistic image
  9. noun a representation of a person (especially in the form of sculpture)
    effigy; simulacrum.
    • the coin bears an effigy of Lincoln
    • the emperor's tomb had his image carved in stone
  10. verb render visible, as by means of MRI
  11. verb imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind
    picture; visualize; envision; figure; visualise; fancy; project; see.
    • I can't see him on horseback!
    • I can see what will happen
    • I can see a risk in this strategy

WordNet

Im"age noun
Etymology
F., fr. L. imago, imaginis, from the root of imitari to imitate. See Imitate, and cf. Imagine.
Definitions
  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. Clerk Maxwell.
Im"age transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Imaged ; present participle & verbal noun Imaging
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913