picturesque - definition, synonyms and pronunciation

Open English WordNet

Adjective (2)

suggesting or suitable for a picture; pretty as a picture“a picturesque village”Opposite uglySimilar beautiful
strikingly expressive“a picturesque description of the rainforest”Opposite colorless, colourlessSimilar colorful, colourful

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Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Pic′tur·esque′ adjective

Origin: It. pittoresco: cf. F. pittoresque. See Pictorial.

Forming, or fitted to form, a good or pleasing picture; representing with the clearness or ideal beauty appropriate to a picture; expressing that peculiar kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture, natural or artificial; graphic; vivid; as, a picturesque scene or attitude; picturesque language.

What is picturesque as placed in relation to the beautiful and the sublime? It is... the characteristic pushed into a sensible excess.— Thomas DeQuincey

— Pic′wb-a2′>′tur·esque′wb-a1′>′ly, adverb — Pic′wb-a2′>′tur·esque′wb-a1′>′ness, noun

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54