Other forms: outlined, outlines, outlining
An outline is the line that shows the shape of something. The outline of the hills, draw the outline, a dark outline.
It is the edge without the detail, which is why a silhouette is all outline. The second sense follows from it: an outline of a plan or a document is the shape without the content — a rough outline, an outline of the argument, an outline planning application. As a verb, to outline is to give the main points: he outlined the proposal in about four minutes.
1nounoutlineThe line showing the shape of something.
“The outline of the hills was just visible at about five.”
2nounplanThe main points of a plan or document.
“There is an outline and no detail at all.”
3verbgiveTo give the main points of something.
“She outlined the whole proposal in four minutes.”
outline is an edge or summary.
The word is out plus line, coined in the eighteenth century by writers on drawing. It is one of many plain English compounds built to replace Latin art vocabulary, and it has entirely outlived the alternatives.
From out + line.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Light & Shadow, Shapes & Lines