资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Picture \Pic"ture\, n. [L. pictura, fr. pingere, pictum, to
   paint: cf. F. peinture. See {Paint}.]
   1. The art of painting; representation by painting. [Obs.]

            Any well-expressed image . . . either in picture or
            sculpture.                            --Sir H.
                                                  Wotton.

   2. A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a
      building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, produced
      by means of painting, drawing, engraving, photography,
      etc.; a representation in colors. By extension, a figure;
      a model.

            Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects.
                                                  --Bacon.

            The young king's picture . . . in virgin wax.
                                                  --Howell.

   3. An image or resemblance; a representation, either to the
      eye or to the mind; that which, by its likeness, brings
      vividly to mind some other thing; as, a child is the
      picture of his father; the man is the picture of grief.

            My eyes make pictures when they are shut.
                                                  --Coleridge.

   Note: Picture is often used adjectively, or in forming
         self-explaining compounds; as, picture book or
         picture-book, picture frame or picture-frame, picture
         seller or picture-seller, etc.

   {Picture gallery}, a gallery, or large apartment, devoted to
      the exhibition of pictures.

   {Picture red}, a rod of metal tube fixed to the walls of a
      room, from which pictures are hung.

   {Picture writing}.
      (a) The art of recording events, or of expressing
          messages, by means of pictures representing the
          actions or circumstances in question. --Tylor.
      (b) The record or message so represented; as, the picture
          writing of the American Indians.

   Syn: {Picture}, {Painting}.

   Usage: Every kind of representation by drawing or painting is
          a picture, whether made with oil colors, water colors,
          pencil, crayons, or India ink; strictly, a painting is
          a picture made by means of colored paints, usually
          applied moist with a brush.

资料来源 : WordNet®

picture writing
     n : a writing system using pictographs