Idiom
pen picture
Meaning
A written description, often biographical.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She wrote a short pen picture of the new manager.”
“Before the interview, the committee read a brief pen picture of each candidate to understand their background.”
“The author provided a vivid pen picture of the artist, capturing both his professional struggles and his quiet, reflective nature.”
Examples
simple
“She wrote a short pen picture of the new manager.”
contextual
“Before the interview, the committee read a brief pen picture of each candidate to understand their background.”
complex
“The author provided a vivid pen picture of the artist, capturing both his professional struggles and his quiet, reflective nature.”
Origin
From pen + picture, a compound appearing in English to denote a literary description that functions with the visual clarity of a drawing.
Key words
Related idioms
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