adumbrates
Gives vague outline
Adumbrates means to sketch out faintly or give a vague indication of something to come.
A novelist's early work may adumbrate themes she'll develop more fully later.
A preliminary report adumbrates findings without detailing them.
The word suggests outline rather than substance—a shadow of the thing rather than the thing itself: The Constitution adumbrates rights that case law has since elaborated.
Represents something future symbolically
- hintsIndirect suggestions
- portendsIndicates what's coming
- presagesIndicates in advance
- foretellsPredicts future events
anticipates · previews · signals · forecasts · heralds · prophesies · predicts · intimates
Rough, quick drawings
- summarizesRestates in brief
- outlinesExternal boundaries or summaries
- delineatesDescribes or portrays precisely
- draftsPreliminary written versions
traces · indicates · suggests · blueprints · frameworks · roughing · blocking · preliminary
prefigures
Represents something future symbolically
foretells · anticipates · previews · signals · forecasts · heralds · prophesies · predicts · intimates · suggests
sketches
Rough, quick drawings
- summarizesRestates in brief
- outlinesExternal boundaries or summaries
- delineatesDescribes or portrays precisely
drafts · traces · indicates · suggests · blueprints · frameworks · roughing · blocking · preliminary · schematic
shadows
Dark areas from blocked light
- veilsTranslucent face coverings
- overshadowsDominates by comparison
- eclipsesAstronomical occultations
dims · clouds · darkens · conceals · shrouds · obscures · casts · partially · hints · suggests
adumbratesexplicates
Analyzes and interprets thoroughly
elucidates · spells out · details · clarifies · illuminates
adumbratesrecapitulates
Restates in condensed form
reviews · retrospects · succeeds · postdates · reflects upon
adumbratesconcludes
Brings to an end
finalizes · completes · summarizes · recapitulates · wraps up