describe
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
mathematics
natural-sciences
sciences
taxonomy
Etymology: From Middle English descriven, from Old French descrivre, from Latin dēscrībō (“to copy off, transcribe, sketch off, describe in painting or writing”), from dē (“off”) + scrībō (“write”); see scribe and shrive. Displaced native Old English āmearcian.
Inflected forms:
form: describes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: describing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: described
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: described
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To represent in words.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The feeling is difficult to describe, but not unpleasant.
The geographer describes countries and cities.
Several witnesses describe seeing lights in the sky that night.
Between 8 and 9 p.m., the recorder at a meteorological station at Harrow, Middlesex, picked up 1,470 lightning flashes within a radius of 10 to 15 miles, and observers at the station described the storm as "probably one of the most spectacular of the century."
[…]his lordship was out of humour. That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve. Stiff-rumped, that's what he was, always rubbing the rust, or riding grub, like he had been for months past.
Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.
Mae, who describes herself on Patreon as a 20-year-old university student from Canada, holds several world records for Baldur’s Gate 3 speedruns already — including her insane 4:15 any% speedrun.
Among the documents Donald Trump’s would-be-assassin studied while formulating his plans for an attack on the former president was a public document from the Department of Homeland Security, describing different kinds of improvised explosive devices and the number of explosives needed to inflict casualties over certain distances, a senior law enforcement official told CNN.
Former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance continue to falsely describe how one of their major policy proposals, across-the-board tariffs, would work.
gloss: To represent by drawing; to draw a plan of; to delineate; to trace or mark out.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to describe a circle by the compasses; a torch waved about the head in such a way as to describe a circle
Uncas described an arc in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe passed swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and flourishing it on high, he gave the war-whoop of the Mohicans.
His body was contracted and bent towards them, and described an undulatory movement like that of a worm writhing.
gloss: To give rise to a geometrical structure.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The function describes a very complex surface.
gloss: To introduce a new taxon to science by explaining its characteristics and particularly how it differs from other taxa.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The fungus was first described by a botanist.
gloss: To distribute into parts, groups, or classes; to mark off; to class.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book.
Synonyms: betell
depict
report
delineate
describe
draw
chronicle
explain
narrate
recount
relate
represent
set forth
state
Antonyms: burlesque
caricature
distort
exaggerate
misrepresent
Related words: describable
description
descriptive
descriptivism
descriptivist
descriptor
scribe
Derived words: abovedescribed
aforedescribed
describability
describee
describer
misdescribe
overdescribe
predescribe
redescribe
Translations: