Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ILL-WORN', a.

Not well worn.

IM, adv.

In composition, is usually the representative of the Latin in; n being changed to m, for the sako of easy utterance, before a labial, as in imbibe, immense, impartial. We use the same prefix in compounds not of Latin origin, as in imbank, imbitter. For im, the French write em, which we also use in words borrowed from their language.

I'M, v. [I'm.]

contracted from I am.

IM'AGE, n. [Fr. image; L. imago; Sp. imagen; It. image, immagine; Ir. iomaigh.]

1. A representation or similitude of any person or thing, formed of a material substance; as, an image wrought out of stone, wood or wax. Whose is this image and superscription? Matth. xxii.
2. A statue.
3. An idol; the representation of any person or thing, that is an object of worship. The second commandment forbids the worship of images.
4. The likeness of any thing on canvas; a picture; a resemblance painted.
5. Any copy, representation or likeness. The child is the image of its mother.
6. Semblance; show; appearance. The face of things a frightful image bears. Dryden.
7. An idea; a representation of any thing to the mind; a conception; a picture drawn by fancy. Can we conceive / Image of aught delightful, soft or great? Prior.
8. In rhetoric, a lively description of any thing in discourse, which presents a kind of picture to the mind. Encyc.
9. In optics, the figure of any object, made by rays of light proceeding from the several points of it. Thus a mirror reflects the image of a person standing before it, as does water in a vessel or stream, when undisturbed.

IM'AG-E, v.t.

To imagine; to copy by the imagination; to form a likeness in the mind by the fancy or recollection. And image charms he must behold no more. Pope.

IM'AGE-A-BLE, a.

That may be imaged.

IM'AG-ED, pp.

Imagined; copied by the imagination.

IM'AGE-LESS, a.

Having no image. Shelley.

IM'AGE-RY, n. [im'ajry.]

1. Sensible representations, pictures, statues. Rich carvings, portraitures and imagery. Dryden.
2. Show; appearance. What can thy imagery and sorrow mean? Prior.
3. Forms of the fancy; false ideas; imaginary phantasms. The imagery of a melancholic fancy. Atterbury.
4. Representations in writing or speaking; lively descriptions which impress the images of things on the mind; figures in discourse. I wish there may be in this poem any instance of good imagery. Dryden.
5. Form; make.

IM'AGE-WOR-SHIP, n.

The worship of images; idolatry.

IM-AG'INA-BLE, a. [Fr. See Imagine.]

That may be imagined or conceived. This point is proved with all imaginable clearness.

IM-AG'IN-A-BLY, adv.

In an imaginable manner.

IM-AG'IN-ANT, a.

Imagining; conceiving. [Not used.] Bacon.

IM-AG'IN-A-RY, a.

Existing only in imagination or fancy; visionary; fancied; not real. Imaginary ills and fancied tortures. Addison.

IM-AG-IN-A'TION, n. [L. imaginatio; Fr. imagination.]

1. The power or faculty of the mind by which it conceives and forms ideas of things communicated to it by the organs of sense. Encyc. Imagination I understand to be the representation of an individual thought. Bacon. Our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination, [conception.] Glanville. Imagination, in its proper sense, signifies a lively conception of objects of sight. It is distinguished from conception as a part from a whole. Reid. The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we have also a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones so as to form new wholes of our own creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. I apprehend this to be the proper sense of the word, if imagination be the power which gives birth to the productions of the poet and the painter. Stewart. We would define imagination to be the will working on the materials of memory; not satisfied with following the order prescribed by nature, or suggested by accident, it selects the parts of different conceptions, or objects of memory, to form a whole more pleasing, more terrible, or more awful, than has ever been presented in the ordinary course of nature. Ed. Encyc. The two latter definitions give the true sense of the word, as now understood.
2. Conception; image in the mind; idea. Sometimes despair darkens all her imaginations. Sidney. His imaginations were often as just as they were bold and strong. Dennis.
3. Contrivance; scheme formed in the mind; device. Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their imaginations against me. Lam. iii.
4. Conceit; an unsolid or fanciful opinion. We are apt to think that space, in itself, is actually boundless; to which imagination, the idea of space of itself leads us. Locke.
5. First motion or purpose of the mind. Gen. vi.

IM-AG'IN-A-TIVE, a. [Fr. imaginatif.]

1. That forms imaginations. Taylor.
2. Full of imaginations; fantastic. Bacon. [“Milton had a highly imaginative, Cowley a very fanciful mind.” S. T. Coleridge's Biog. Lit. I, 88. – E. H. B.] [See Imagination.]

IM-AG'IN-A-TIVE-NESS, n.

State of being imaginative.

IM-A'GINE, v.i.

To conceive; to have a notion or idea. I can not imagine how this should have happened.

IM-AG'INE, v.t. [Fr. imaginer; Sp. imaginar; L. imaginor, from imago, image.]

1. To form a notion or idea in the mind; to fancy. We can imagine the figure of a horse's head united to a human body. [In this sense, fancy is the more proper word.]
2. To form ideas or representations in the mind, by modifying and combining our conceptions. Stewart.
3. To contrive in purpose; to scheme; to devise. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ps. lxii.

IM-AG'IN-ED, pp.

Formed in the mind; fancied; contrived.

IM-AG'IN-ER, n.

One who forms ideas; one who contrives. Bacon.

IM'AG-ING, n.

The forming of an image. Carlisle.

IM'AG-ING, ppr.

Imagining; copying in the imagination.

IM-AG'IN-ING, n.

The act of forming images or ideas. Channing.

IM-AG'IN-ING, ppr.

Forming ideas in the mind; devising.