STILL LIFE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Still life

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/stɪl laɪf/ Listen

adjective

Still adj. (compar. stiller; superl. stillest)

1.

Motionless; at rest; quiet; as, to stand still; to lie or sit still. "Still as any stone."

2.

Uttering no sound; silent; as, the audience is still; the animals are still. "The sea that roared at thy command, At thy command was still."

3.

Not disturbed by noise or agitation; quiet; calm; as, a still evening; a still atmosphere. "When all the woods are still."

4.

Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low. "A still small voice."

5.

Constant; continual. (Obs.) "By still practice learn to know thy meaning."

6.

Not effervescing; not sparkling; as, still wines.

Still life. (Fine Arts)

(a)

Inanimate objects.

(b)

(Painting) The class or style of painting which represents inanimate objects, as fruit, flowers, dead game, etc.

Synonyms: Quiet; calm; noiseless; serene; motionless; inert; stagnant.

noun

Still life n.

1.

A type of painting in which inanimate objects such as flowers or fruit are represented.

2.

The inanimate subject matter of a still life painting or photograph; as, to painted only still life.

See images of 'Still life'

Etymology of 'Still life'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Still life" Quotes from Famous Books

... the greatest horror of being mistaken for a caricaturist pure and simple; and although he executed caricatures for special purposes, they may literally be counted on the fingers. "His pictures," says Hazlitt, "are not imitations of still life, or mere transcripts of incidental scenes and customs; but powerful moral satires, exposing vice and folly in their most ludicrous points of view, and with a profound insight into the weak sides of character and manners, in all their tendencies, combinations, and contrasts. ...

— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... retained the regular, habitual impressions of actual objects, but he could not follow the rapid flights of fancy, or the strong movements of passion. That is, he was to the poet what the painter of still life is to the painter of history. Common sense sympathizes with the impressions of things on ordinary minds in ordinary circumstances: genius catches the glancing combinations presented to the eye of fancy, under the influence ...

— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... well as read, which I could not do last year. Thus I saunter away the remainder, be it more or less, of an agitated and active life, now reduced (and I am not sure that I am a loser by the change) to so quiet and serene a one, that it may properly be called still life. ...

— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... extremes of character and expression, but he gives them with perfect truth and accuracy. This is, in fact, what distinguishes his compositions from all others of the same kind, that they are equally remote from caricature, and from mere still life.... His faces go to the very verge of caricature, and yet never (we believe in any single instance) go ...

— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... indignation. But Schaunard had no self respect, above all in the matter of lobsters, and as there was still a portion left, he had the audacity to put it on one side, saying that he would do for a model for a still life piece he ...

— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

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