outline

OWT-lyn/ˈaʊtlaɪn/

11 meanings of outline

1
nouncountable
The shape you see around the edge of something.
Like the dark shape of a tree you can still see against the evening sky.
The dark outline of the mountains stood out against the evening sky.
She could just make out the outline of a ship in the fog.
Similarsilhouette, shape, contour, profile, form
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2
nouncountable
A line that shows the edge of an object or figure.
Like the line you make when you draw around your hand.
The teacher drew an outline around each shape on the board.
He filled the outline with bright red paint.
Similarcontour, border
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3
nouncountable
A short list of the main points in a piece of writing.
Like a short list that tells you what a long book is about.
She wrote an outline of the chapter to study for the test.
The outline listed the three main ideas of the essay.
Similarsummary, synopsis, digest
4
nouncountable
A first, rough plan for a project.
Like a rough plan you draw up before you start building.
We made an outline for the school play before choosing actors.
The team agreed on a simple outline for the new app.
Similarplan, draft, framework, blueprint, sketch
5
verbtransitive
To give the main points of something in a short way.
Like telling a long story using just a few words.
Please outline the rules before we start the game.
She outlined her plan in just a few sentences.
Similarsummarize, sketch, describe
Note
6
verbtransitive
To draw the edge of something, or to describe it in a general way.
Like drawing the edge of a shape before you fill it in.
The artist outlined the figure with a soft pencil.
Please outline the plan so everyone understands it.
Similarsketch, describe, trace, delineate
7
nouncountable
A short general description of a subject, without all the details.
Like a quick summary that gives you the main idea of a subject.
The book gives an outline of world history.
He gave us an outline of how computers work.
Similaroverview, summary, sketch, survey, rundown
8
nouncountable or uncountable
A simple drawing that shows only the edges of things, with no shading.
Like a coloring-book picture before anyone colors it in.
The children drew the animals as simple outlines.
He sketched the house as an outline before adding any detail.
Similarsketch, drawing
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9
nouncountable
A written story in plain prose that will later be turned into a movie script.
Like writing the whole story in plain words before making it into a movie.
She wrote an outline before turning her idea into a movie script.
The studio asked for an outline of the story first.
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10
nouncountable
A long fishing line left in the water with many hooks on it.
Like a long fishing line with many hooks, left in the water by itself.
They baited the outline and left it overnight in the river.
Each morning he checked the outline for catfish.
Similarsetline, trotline
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11
verbtransitive
To make a program smaller by turning repeated bits of code into shared functions.
Like saving room by writing one set of instructions and pointing to it many times.
The compiler can outline repeated code to save space.
They outlined the duplicate sections to shrink the program.
Oppositeinline
Note

Practice

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Origin

From the words 'out' and 'line'.