Other forms: delineated, delineating, delineates
To delineate is to describe or mark out the shape of something exactly. Delineate the boundary.
It works for lines on a map and for the outline of an argument. The Latin behind it is drawing a line, which is exactly what the word still does.
1verbdelineateTo describe or mark out the shape of something exactly.
“The report failed to delineate who was responsible for anything.”
delineate is a marking out.
Latin delineare means to sketch out, from de plus linea, a line.
Latin
dēlīneātus
English, today
delineate
Built from
1559; Latin dēlīneātus, perfect passive participle of dēlīneo (“to sketch out, to delineate”) (see -ate and -ate), from dē- + līnea (“line”) + -ō. Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA