PAINT A PICTURE

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does paint a picture mean? 

• PAINT A PICTURE (verb)
  The verb PAINT A PICTURE has 1 sense:

1. call to mind

  Familiarity information: PAINT A PICTURE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAINT A PICTURE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Call to mind

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

evoke; paint a picture; suggest

Context example:

this remark evoked sadness

Hypernyms (to "paint a picture" is one way to...):

evince; express; show (give expression to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "paint a picture"):

reek; smack; smell (have an element suggestive (of something))

imply; incriminate; inculpate (suggest that someone is guilty)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

In a pair of new papers, scientists paint a picture of how solar cycles suddenly die, potentially causing tsunamis of plasma to race through the sun's interior and trigger the birth of the next sunspot cycle only a few weeks later.

('Terminators' on the sun trigger plasma tsunamis, start of new solar cycles, National Science Foundation)