outline

Pluraloutlines

Formsoutlines, outlining, outlined

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The line or shape traced by the outer edges of a figure or object.

   The outline of the old castle was barely visible at dusk.

   Designers traced the outline of the car before adding any detail.

   Similarsilhouette, shape, contour, profile, form

   Note

   Here the word names the shape itself, not a line drawn around it. It is what stays visible when detail is lost, as with a castle at dusk. The plural suits something large and complicated: H. A. Vallance, crossing the Forth Bridge on foot in 1950, took in "the massive outlines of the main structure, and its intricate maze of girders."

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A line drawn to mark the boundary or edge of an object or figure.

   The artist drew a thin outline before coloring the petals.

   A bold outline separated each country on the printed map.

   Similarcontour, border

   Note

   Built from the two plain words it looks like, out plus line: the line that runs around the outside of a thing. That literal picture is the root of the whole family, from the outer shape itself to the summary, which traces only the edges of a subject. In drawing and mapmaking it is the line put down first, before color fills it in.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A written statement that sets out the most important points of a text.

   Before the exam, he reviewed an outline of the entire textbook.

   The professor handed out an outline covering each lecture's main arguments.

   Similarsummary, synopsis, digest

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A preliminary plan setting out the basic shape of a project.

   The manager presented an outline for the marketing campaign at the meeting.

   They sketched a rough outline of the project before hiring any staff.

   Similarplan, draft, framework, blueprint, sketch

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To give a brief summary of the main points of something.

   The report outlines the key findings of the study.

   Could you outline the steps involved in the process?

   Similarsummarize, sketch, describe

   Note

   The summarizing verb can name the listener with for. In Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907), a character "outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy." The word sits close to the drawing-and-describing verb: to outline a book is to give its shape, chapter by chapter, and leave out the detail.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To draw the outer shape of something, or to describe it in broad terms.

   She outlined the proposed changes during the staff meeting.

   Architects outline their designs before construction begins.

   Similarsketch, describe, trace, delineate

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A general description giving the broad features of a subject.

   The introduction provides an outline of the country's economy.

   She offered a brief outline of the theory before the lecture began.

   Similaroverview, summary, sketch, survey, rundown

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A sketch or drawing in which objects are shown by their contour lines, without shading.

   The artist's outline captured the figure with just a few clean lines.

   Early studies were done in outline, with shading left for a later stage.

   Similarsketch, drawing

   Note

   Here the word names a whole picture rather than a single line: a drawing built only from the boundary line of each figure. John Dryden's 1695 translation of du Fresnoy's De Arte Graphica lists outlines beside colors, lights and shadows as the painter's means. That pairing gives the useful contrast: an outline is the picture before tone and shading arrive.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   In filmmaking, a prose version of a story that will be developed into a screenplay; it is normally fuller and richer in detail than a treatment.

   The screenwriter submitted an outline running nearly forty pages.

   Producers reviewed the outline before commissioning a full screenplay.

   Note

   Film and television writers treat it as a specific document. It is longer and more detailed than a treatment, and it maps scenes and structure in prose before any dialogue is drafted. Unlike a general project plan, it is a finished piece of writing that producers read when deciding whether to commission the screenplay.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A fishing line set in place and left unattended, fitted with many baited hooks along its length; a setline or trotline.

    The fishermen stretched an outline across the channel and returned at dawn to collect their catch.

    Several catfish were hooked on the outline by the next morning.

    Similarsetline, trotline

    Note

    An angler's word that uses the same out and line as the drawn boundary, here meaning a line put out and left in the water. A setline or trotline is a long main line anchored across or along the water. It carries many baited hooks on short droppers and catches fish passively, with no rod and reel. Fishing talk makes clear which outline is meant.

11. 11
    verbtransitive

    To reduce a program's size by replacing repeated fragments of code with calls to a shared function.

    The optimizer outlines common instruction sequences to reduce binary size.

    Engineers can outline repeated routines when memory is tightly limited.

    Oppositeinline

    Note

    A compiler term built as the mirror image of inlining, which is why "reverse inline" also names it. Inlining copies a function's body into each place it is called. Outlining does the opposite: it pulls a repeated instruction sequence out into one shared function and calls it from each place. The aim is a smaller program, and the verb takes the code as its object: the optimizer outlines a sequence.

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