Literary notes about adumbrated (AI summary)
In literature, "adumbrated" is often used to suggest that an idea, form, or narrative element is hinted at only in outline or in a preliminary, vague manner. It can denote the first, incomplete sketch of a concept that promises further development, as when a story is subtly hinted at before its full revelation [1], or when characters and settings are minimally outlined, inviting the reader to imagine the fuller picture later [2]. The term also serves as a tool for foreshadowing, casting an ethereal, partially revealed glow on themes that will later be expanded in greater detail [3], [4]. Moreover, its use can evoke a sense of ambiguity and mystery, as in depictions that leave much to be inferred from shadowy contours rather than clear-cut definitions [5], [6].
- All this as yet is dimly adumbrated; it is a first hint of a scheme of thought which it may well take centuries to develop.
— from Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death by F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry) Myers - Thus the blocks arrived at the sea-shore with rudely adumbrated outlines of the shape they were destined to assume under the artist's chisel.
— from The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti by John Addington Symonds - Is it not all adumbrated and foretold in these words: 'How precious is Thy loving-kindness, O God!
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms by Alexander Maclaren - Bit by bit the fragments of the puzzle fell into order till a coherent whole was adumbrated.
— from The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers - And back of it all, adumbrated in a dim, mysterious purple, the great tors of Dartmoor rose sentinel upon the horizon.
— from The House of Dreams-Come-True by Margaret Pedler - It is a subject adumbrated by Leibniz, studied somewhat more deeply by Euler, and greatly developed of recent years.
— from On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
