Crossword clues for contour
contour
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contour \Con*tour"\, n. [F. contour, fr. contourner to mark the outlines; con- + tourner to turn. See Turn.]
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The outline of a figure or body, or the line or lines representing such an outline; the line that bounds; periphery.
Titian's coloring and contours.
--A. Drummond. -
(Mil.) The outline of a horizontal section of the ground, or of works of fortification.
Contour feathers (Zo["o]l.), those feathers that form the general covering of a bird.
Contour of ground (Surv.), the outline of the surface of ground with respect to its undulation, etc.
Contour line (Topographical Suv.), the line in which a horizontal plane intersects a portion of ground, or the corresponding line in a map or chart. [1913 Webster] ||
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1660s, a term in painting and sculpture, from French contour "circumference, outline," from Italian and Medieval Latin contornare "to go around," from Latin com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + tornare "to turn (on a lathe);" see turn (v.).\n
\nFirst recorded application to topography is from 1769. Earlier the word was used to mean "bedspread, quilt" (early 15c.) in reference to its falling over the sides of the mattress. Related: Contoured. Contour line in geography is from 1844.
Wiktionary
n. 1 An outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape. 2 A line on a map or chart delineating those points which have the same altitude or other plotted quantity: a contour line or isopleth. 3 (context linguistics English) a speech sound which behaves as a single segment, but which makes an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another.
WordNet
n. a line drawn on a map connecting points of equal height [syn: contour line]
any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline); "he could barely make out their shapes through the smoke" [syn: shape, form, configuration, conformation]
a feature (or the order or arrangement of features) of anything having a complex structure; "the contours of the melody"; "it defines a major contour of this administration"
v. form the contours of
Wikipedia
Contour may refer to:
- Contour (linguistics), a phonetic sound
- Pitch contour
- Contour (camera system), a 3D digital camera system
- Contour, the KDE Plasma 4 interface for tablet devices
- Contour line, a curve along which the function has a constant value
- A closed path in the mathematical method of contour integration
- Boundary (topology) of a set
Contours may refer to:
- Contours (album), by Sam Rivers
- The Contours, a soul music group
Contouring may refer to:
- The makeup technique contouring
Usage examples of "contour".
He is all soft contours, a half-head of Afro hair, roundly sculpted, and a beard trimmed close to a broad cheeky face.
He had swum down the length of the airframe, lifting slowly over the huge wing, gripping the edges of the massive tailpipes as he rounded the tail section, his lamp dancing wildly off the contours of the plane.
The town had been laid out along the serpentine contours of Bayou Teche, which took its name from an Atakapa Indian word that meant snake.
Chalky white shells bearing the inverted contours of various automata were stacked along the walls.
Other than the contours of the land to the north and south, the screen was empty in the Bohai Haixia Channel.
Her shoulders and her bare arms gleamed with an extraordinary splendour, and when she advanced her head into the light he saw the admirable contour of the face, the straight fine nose with delicate nostrils, the exquisite crimson brushstroke of the lips on this oval without colour.
He ducked down and reached for a clamshell on the port side of the cockpit--the clamshells were hinged panels that covered the top of the cockpit when rigged for dive, smoothing it out with the contour of the top of the sail.
Ford, maybe Carmen needs to see the cutlines on your contour maps of the bus routes.
Almost the whole of Barking and Dagenham lies below the ten-metre contour line and the borough engineer phones the police the warning that 75,000 people are now at grave risk.
On the other hand, a cleft scrotum, an ill-developed penis, perhaps hypospadias or epispadias, rotundity of the mammae, and feminine contour have also provoked accounts of similar instances.
Bourne was driving fast, but with an economy of movement on the tiller and such skill that the attitude of the jeep did not change even when it shot up the sloping inner face of the berm around the firebase and sailed above the steep outer contour in momentary free flight.
Long galleries of thick stone fronted the top third on its three free sides, their contours stepped in or out as the contours of the mountain of which they were carved dictated, so that the whole effect was of a massive upsurge of stone becoming lacier and more intricate as it rose, like foam atop a wave.
The battlegrounds bumped past and Luis was surprised at how the natural colors and contours of the earth had been sooted over, as though the black German blocks of the big map were actually here pressing their shade into the world.
With greedy abandon, Corry explored every contour of his muscular form, all the while devouring his mouth with teasing nips and leisurely kisses.
In 1979, for example, a proposal was made to the ARCE for a full-scale mapping survey involving the Great Sphinx and its enclosure in which use would be made of modern photogrammetric techniques to record every detail, crack, fissure, contour and outline of the monument.