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line drawing

line drawing

3 3.6
A picture made only with lines that shows the shape of things without color or shading
  • noun
  • /laɪn ˈdrɔɪŋ/
translation icon : dibujo a línea
  • First, human line drawings, made under our controlled conditions, are quite consistent with each other.
  • a simple line drawing
  • black line drawings
  • a white line drawing

It's this beautiful geometric line drawing of me and Ryan, and we removed all the words from the cover.

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Examples

  • First, participants viewed line drawings of headless or faceless figures, rather than photographs of real people.

    Academic text (1996)
  • This is vector art, where everything is a line drawing, basically.

  • So the line drawing part is almost done.

  • This set of two hand line drawings are from Target.

  • "I thought back to my father's manual and the line drawings of body parts.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • It's this beautiful geometric line drawing of me and Ryan, and we removed all the words from the cover.

  • The goal of our work is to characterize the mathematical properties of line drawings made by human artists.

    Academic text (2012)
  • From sketches and line drawings to painting and posters, illustrations help students visualize ideas and concepts.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Sarah flipped fast through her sketch pad: line drawings of her husband's bearded face, of the tomcat's fluid poses.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Before starting a painting, he made a line drawing of the view he had chosen.

Synonyms

drawing
vsline drawing
184 1.0

A picture made by hand with a pen or pencil

is a specific type made only from outlines, with no shading or color
depiction
vsline drawing
30 4.0

A picture or other image that shows what something looked like

is limited to pure outline work and excludes shaded or colored forms
delineation
vsline drawing
  • Formal
2 6.7

A drawing that shows the outlines or shapes of things

focuses solely on outlines instead of shaded or colored rendering
linework
vsline drawing
  • Specialized
1 5.8

The way an artist uses lines to make a drawing look clear or lively

uses only strokes to show outlines without tonal shading or color
limning
vsline drawing
  • Archaic
9.9

A simple drawing that shows the outer lines of an object like a face or building

uses only simple strokes and does not add shading or color

Antonyms

24 1.3

The act of adding color to something

11 3.1

Marks made in a drawing to show light and shadow and make it look three-dimensional

How Detailed

shaded
3.5
rendering
  • Specialized
20 5.8
line drawing
3 3.6
to sketch
45 3.0

Surface Forms

line drawing singular
line drawings plural

Morphology

line + drawing

The meaning 'a drawing made of lines' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'line' (a long, narrow mark) with 'drawing' (a picture made by hand). This compound follows a regular compositional pattern (a drawing characterized by lines) that is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The noun line drawing comes from the simple idea of a line, a thin mark, and a drawing, so it means a picture made only of lines that shows the 'outlines' of objects without color or shading. That's why we call images that keep shape and detail using only lines 'line drawings'.