Portray
//pɔːˈtɹeɪ// verb
verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To paint or draw the likeness of.
"I will portray a king on horseback."
- 2 portray in words wordnet
- 3 To represent by an image or look. figuratively
"Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death, And in his eies the furies of his heart, That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng, And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks."
- 4 make a portrait of wordnet
- 5 To describe in words; to convey. figuratively
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 represent abstractly, for example in a painting, drawing, or sculpture wordnet
- 7 To play a role; to depict a character, person, situation, or event.
"For my next movie, I will be portraying Shakespeare."
- 8 assume or act the character of wordnet
- 9 To adorn. obsolete
Example
More examples"Shinichirō Watanabe once considered making an anime about Christopher Columbus, but came to the conclusion that not even anime was expressive enough to properly portray the surreal greatness of Columbus's exploits."
Etymology
From Middle English portray, from Middle French portraire.
Related phrases
More for "portray"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.