When a writer or artist portrays something, he or she writes a description or produces a painting of it. this northern novelist, who accurately portrays provincial domestic life. the landscape as portrayed by painters such as Claude and Poussin. = depict
If a film, book, or television programme portrays someone in a certain way, it represents them in that way. She says the programme portrayed her as a `lady of easy virtue'. complaints about the way women are portrayed in adverts
portray in words; "The book portrays the actor as a selfish person" make a portrait of; "Goya wanted to portray his mistress, the Duchess of Alba" represent in a painting, drawing, sculpture, or verbally; "The father is portrayed as a good-looking man in this painting
When an actor or actress portrays someone, he or she plays that person in a play or film. In 1975 he portrayed the king in a Los Angeles revival of `Camelot'. the busty and rumbustious Mrs Hall, excellently portrayed by Toni Palmer