english
1
general::
describe
to talk or write about a person, place, event etc, in order to show what they are like:
• Could you try and describe the man you saw? • In her book, she describes her journey across the Sahara. • Police described the attack as particularly violent.
tell somebody about somebody/something
to describe someone or something to someone. This phrase is more commonly used than describe in everyday spoken English:
• So, tell me about your holiday! • My friends have told me all about you!
depict
formal to describe someone or something in a piece of writing:
• His stories depict life in Trinidad as seen through the eyes of a young boy. • In this new biography she is depicted as a lonely and unhappy woman.
portray/represent
formal to describe someone or something in a particular way:
• College teachers are often represented on television shows as slightly eccentric. • The magazine has been criticized for the way it portrays women. • The treatment has been portrayed as a painless way of curing cancer, which is simply not true. • Police have represented her as a willing participant in the crimes.
characterize somebody/something as something
formal to describe someone or something by emphasizing one particular quality or feature about them:
• He characterized himself as ‘an average American’. • The successful schools were characterized as innovative and creative.
paint somebody/something as something
to describe someone or something, especially in a way that makes people believe something that is not true:
• Not all young people are as bad as they’re painted in the press. • We won, yet the media is painting it as a victory for our opponents. • The woman was painted as having only a slight grasp of reality.
paint a picture
to describe a situation, so that people can get a general idea of what it is like:
• Can you paint a picture of life in Japan for us? • My uncle’s letters generally painted a rosy picture of how things were. • The report painted a bleak picture of the management’s failures.
Longman-Thesaurus
2
general::
verb
report:
You must describe how you did that.
Simple Definitions
3
general::
Phrase(s): describe someone or something to someone
to characterize or portray a particular person or thing to someone. • Will you describe her to me, please? • Please describe yourself to me so I will know you.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
4
general::
verb ADV. accurately, exactly, in detail Their daily lives are described in detail. | fully This process is fully described in section three of the book. | adequately | briefly He described briefly what happened. | vividly VERB + DESCRIBE cannot Words cannot describe our feelings at that moment. | be difficult to, be hard to, be impossible to | go on to He goes on to describe very vividly how Caesar was stabbed to death.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary