silhouettenoun/ˌsɪlʊˈɛt/

• 1

  artartsAn artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.

  • She had a feeble pencil drawing of the vicarage in Dorsetshire, and silhouettes of her father and mother, which were hung up in the lodgings wherever she went.
  • [A] portion of the John Boyd Thatcher^([sic]) collection of commissions, documents, autograph letters and portraits; a case containing silhouets of famous Colonial personages, a silhouet ring, some smoked silhouets, […]
• 2

  A dark outline of someone or something seen against a brighter background.

  • I could see a silhouette of a figure looking out from the window, but I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
  • All we could see were ghostly-looking silhouettes of ships gliding here and there through the clouds; and I am sure the coachman's remark was quite correct, that it was a pity the day was so misty.
• 3

  fashionlifestyleAn outline of a garment as it appears on a wearer.

  • A-line is a classic silhouette for dresses and skirts.
  • Dresses have departed from the straight-line severity of last season and show great diversity of design. One may choose the semi-princess silhouet or the flared peplum, the bloused silhouet, the bolero or the caplet effects.
• 4

  A brief written description of someone or something; an outline, a sketch.

  • [A]t my elbow stood a tall man, young, though probably five or six years older than I—in other respects of an appearance the opposite to common-place; though just now, as I am not disposed to paint his portrait in detail, the reader must be content with the silhouette I have just thrown off; […]

silhouetteverb/ˌsɪlʊˈɛt/

• 1

  Often followed by against or upon: to depict (oneself or someone, or something) as a silhouette (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2.1); to project (oneself or someone, or something) upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

  • We guided ourselves, by the fitful flashes of forked and sheet lightning combined, towards a ghostly point, whose deeper blackness silhouetted it against the shades.
  • [N]ot only the passing figure of the young girl was seen, but the dazzling green and gold of the hillside, and the far-off silhouetted crests of the Coast Range.
• 2

  To appear as a silhouette.

  • [T]he distant islands […] lay dark and massive across our path, their huge crowns silhouetting in clear-cut outlines against the eastern sky, […]