FreeScrabbleDictionary

limn

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
6
Words With Friends
9
Letters
4
Pronunciation
/lɪm/

Definition of limn

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (also, figuratively, transitive)To draw or paint; to delineate.
    “Who then to frail Mortality ſhall truſt, / But limns in Water, or but writes in Duſt.”
    “Then the Painter, according to the pattern of ſome living thing, portraieth [draweth out] the picture groſly; afterward he reſembleth it to the life, and with his pencil limneth it with different painting colors.”
    “Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective.”
    “Thou limnest well, / Were I to paint, I should shew you happy.”
    “This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud / Of his soul writ and limned; […]”
See all 2 definitions

verb

  1. (also, figuratively, transitive)To draw or paint; to delineate.
    “Who then to frail Mortality ſhall truſt, / But limns in Water, or but writes in Duſt.”
    “Then the Painter, according to the pattern of ſome living thing, portraieth [draweth out] the picture groſly; afterward he reſembleth it to the life, and with his pencil limneth it with different painting colors.”
    “Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective.”
    “Thou limnest well, / Were I to paint, I should shew you happy.”
    “This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud / Of his soul writ and limned; […]”
  2. (obsolete, transitive)To illuminate, as a manuscript; to decorate with gold or some other bright colour.
    “Some of her [Elizabeth Barton's] Revelations were no better than ſilly Tales: Such was a certain Tale of Mary Magdalen, delivering her a Letter from Heaven, that was limned with golden Letters: which indeed was written by a Monk of St. Auguſtines, Canterbury: and another at Calais.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English limnen, limyne, lymm, lymn, lymne (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), a variant of luminen (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), short form of enluminen (“to shed light on, illuminate; to…

See full etymology

From Middle English limnen, limyne, lymm, lymn, lymne (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), a variant of luminen (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), short form of enluminen (“to shed light on, illuminate; to enlighten; to make bright or clear; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript); to depict, describe; to adorn or embellish with figures of speech or poetry; to make famous, glorious, or illustrious”), from Old French enluminer (“to brighten, light up; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript)”), from Latin illūminō (“to brighten, light up; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside’)) + lūminō (“to brighten, illuminate; to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; (poetic) brightness”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine; to see”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Words you can make from limn

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3-letter words

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2-letter words

3 words

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