Other forms: contours, contoured, contouring
A contour is the line an edge makes as it curves. The dark rim of a hill against an evening sky; the outline of a cheekbone drawn in one unbroken stroke.
When it means shape it comes in the plural: the contours of the coast, the contours of a body under a sheet. On a map a contour is an exact thing, a line joining every point at the same height, and where the contours crowd together the slope is steep. As a verb, to contour is to shape something so that it follows a curve, which is why a contoured seat fits your back and a contoured road bends with the hillside. Make-up borrowed the word whole, so contouring is shading that gives a flat face the look of edges. It works for arguments too: the contours of a debate are its rough outer shape, not its detail.
1nounoutlineThe outline of something, especially the way it curves.~7%
“He traced the contour of the jug with one finger.”
synonyms: outline, silhouette
2nouncontourA line on a map joining points that are the same height above sea level.~89%
“The contours bunched together where the cliff began.”
3verbfollowsTo shape something so that it follows a curve.~2%
“The chair is contoured to support the lower back.”
4verbshadeTo shade the face with make-up so that its shapes look sharper.~2%
“She contours under her cheekbones with a cool brown powder.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
contour is a line marking a shape.
English took contour straight from French, which built it from contourner out of con- and tour — the same tour English borrowed for a journey that comes back round to where it started. A contour is that idea drawn: the line that goes right round a shape and closes.
French
contour
English, today
contour
Borrowed from French contour, from contourner, equivalent to con + tour.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA