CONTOUR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Contour

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/kˈɑntˌʊr/ Listen

noun

Contour n.

The outline of a figure or body, or the line or lines representing such an outline; the line that bounds; periphery. "Titian's coloring and contours."

(Mil.) The outline of a horizontal section of the ground, or of works of fortification.

Contour feathers (Zool.), those feathers that form the general covering of a bird.

Contour of ground (Surv.), the outline of the surface of ground with respect to its undulation, etc.

Contour line (Topographical Suv.), the line in which a horizontal plane intersects a portion of ground, or the corresponding line in a map or chart.

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Etymology of 'Contour'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contour" Quotes from Famous Books

... in the photograph, older, more beautiful—the same soft, sweet contour of face, the same dark eyes that had looked at him in MacGregor's office, filled with an indescribable sadness now, instead of the laughing joy of girlhood. In another moment he would have responded to her hesitation, to the pathetic tremble of her lips, ...

— Philip Steele of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police • James Oliver Curwood

... would have taken him to be some civilized and modernized Squire Western, nourished with beef and ale, and roughly hewn out of the most robust and least refined variety of human clay. Looking at him more narrowly, however, you would have reconsidered this judgment. Though his general contour and aspect were massive and sturdy, the lines of his features were delicately cut; his complexion was remarkably pure and fine, and his face was susceptible of very subtle and sensitive changes of expression. Here was a man of abundant ...

— Confessions and Criticisms • Julian Hawthorne

... were rather a pleasure to me than otherwise. They settled right down to the heart-softening business in such matter-of-fact fashion that their hearts must have lost contour before the voyage was half over. Polly dismissed them from her mind with a sigh of satisfaction, and I then hoped that she would find some time to devote to me, but I was disappointed. She assured me that those two were safely locked in the fold, but that she ...

— The Fat of the Land - The Story of an American Farm • John Williams Streeter

... The general physical contour of Africa has been likened to an inverted plate with one or more rows of mountains at the edge and a low coastal belt. In the south the central plateau is three thousand or more feet above the sea, while in the north it ...

— The Negro • W.E.B. Du Bois

... be about the age of eighteen. Her stature was tall; her motion graceful. A knot of artificial flowers restrained the luxuriancy of her fine black hair, that flowed in shining ringlets adown her snowy neck. The contour of her face was oval; her forehead remarkably high; her complexion clean and delicate, though not florid; and her eyes were so piercing, as to strike the soul of every beholder. Yet, upon this occasion, one half of their vivacity was eclipsed by a languishing air ...

— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett

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