From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishldoce_302_asilhouettesil‧hou‧ette /ˌsɪluˈet/ noun 1 SHAPE[countable, uncountable] a dark image, shadow, or shape that you see against a light backgroundsilhouette of a dark silhouette of domes and minaretssilhouette against Soon the bombers would return, black silhouettes against a pale sky.in silhouette The old windmill stood out in silhouette.2 [countable, uncountable] a drawing of something or someone, often from the side, showing a black shape against a light background silhouette pictures of snowmen and reindeerin silhouette a picture of Mozart in silhouette3 [countable] the particular shape certain clothes give you Fitted clothes often give the neatest silhouettes. —silhouetted adjective tall chimney stacks silhouetted against the orange flames
Examples from the Corpus
silhouette• She looked up to the skyline, where Scathach's tall form was a silhouette.• Imprints of trees pressed themselves against the windshield, black silhouettes that hung like bleak skeletons.• The pile drivers stood idle in the darkness, gray silhouettes like horses sleeping upright in a field.• We could see her silhouette through the curtains.• I could see from his silhouette in the starlight that he was hanging his head.• Throwing up her hand, Tabitha glimpsed a figure in silhouette rising up from the floor at their very feet.• Lauren's fall collection includes wool suits with a new, narrower silhouette.• All this for a fleeting ten second flash of silhouette on the Big Screen.• One can easily imagine how such warm, living illumination would bring forth spontaneous silhouettes, as it were from another world.• I saw the silhouette of someone waiting under the streetlight.• It threw a red glow round their silhouettes as they walked away.• The trees were silhouettes in the morning fog.in silhouette• The 321/2 stamp depicted a woman in silhouette.Origin silhouette (1700-1800) French from Étienne de Silhouette (1709-67), French politician famous for not liking to spend money, and therefore appropriately giving his name to a cheap simple picture