Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view.
  • noun A picture depicting an expanse of scenery.
  • noun The branch of art dealing with the representation of natural scenery.
  • noun The aspect of the land characteristic of a particular region.
  • noun Grounds that have been landscaped.
  • noun An extensive mental view; an interior prospect.
  • noun The orientation of a page such that the shorter side runs from top to bottom.
  • intransitive verb To adorn or improve (a section of ground) by contouring and by planting flowers, shrubs, or trees.
  • intransitive verb To arrange grounds aesthetically or maintain grounds as a profession.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To represent or delineate in landscape.
  • noun A view or prospect of rural scenery, more or less extensive, such as is comprehended within the scope or range of vision from a single point of view. See also landskip.
  • noun A picture representing a view or prospect of rural or natural inland scenery as it appears within the range of vision from a single point of view; also, such pictures collectively, as distinguished especially from marine and architectural pictures and from portraits.
  • noun A compendious view or manifestation; an epitome; a compend. (Compare quotation from Bishop Hacket under landskip.)
  • noun Synonyms Prospect, Scene, etc. See view, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects it contains.
  • noun A picture representing a scene by land or sea, actual or fancied, the chief subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water. etc. Compare seascape.
  • noun The pictorial aspect of a country.
  • noun The art of laying out grounds and arranging trees, shrubbery, etc., in such a manner as to produce a picturesque effect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects it contains.
  • noun A picture representing a scene by land or sea, actual or fancied, the chief subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water. etc.
  • noun The pictorial aspect of a country.
  • noun printing a mode of printing where the horizontal sides are longer than the vertical sides
  • noun A space, indoor or outdoor and natural or man-made (as in "designed landscape")
  • noun figuratively a situation that is presented, a scenario
  • verb Create or maintain a landscape.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a genre of art dealing with the depiction of natural scenery
  • noun an extensive mental viewpoint
  • noun painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery
  • verb do landscape gardening
  • noun an expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view
  • verb embellish with plants

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land; see lendh- in Indo-European roots + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an alteration (due to Dutch landschap) of earlier landskip, lantschip, from Middle English *landschippe, *landschapp, from Old English landscipe, landsceap ("region, district, tract of land"), equivalent to land +‎ -ship; in some senses from Dutch landschap ("region, district, province, landscape"), from Middle Dutch landscap, lantscap ("region"), from Old Dutch *landskepi, *landskapi (“region”). Cognate with Scots landskape, landskep, landskip ("landscape"), West Frisian lânskip ("landscape"), Low German landschop ("landscape, district"), German Landschaft ("landscape, countryside, scenery"), Swedish landskap ("landscape, scenery, province"), Icelandic landskapur ("countryside").

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Examples

  • Some might call it a green belt, or use the term "landscape urbanism."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Harris Silver 2011

  • That's the name landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church gave to the Persian-style pile he built in Hudson, New York, after visiting Damascus, Jerusalem and Beirut.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • For most Timorese, the landscape is also populated by powerful spirits who are called rai na'in, literally meaning owners of the land.

    Global Voices in English » East Timor: The land was freed, but who owns it? 2009

  • A part of the landscape is an interesting phenomenon; in amongst the endless fields, you will find the occasional lonely hill, rising abruptly from the earth and coming to a broad flat top ... utterly alien in that flat land, and upon reflection, very hard to explain.

    Only a couple of decades late. Big Jim 2010

  • A part of the landscape is an interesting phenomenon; in amongst the endless fields, you will find the occasional lonely hill, rising abruptly from the earth and coming to a broad flat top ... utterly alien in that flat land, and upon reflection, very hard to explain.

    Archive 2010-04-01 Big Jim 2010

  • The masterplan for 2012, headed by Jason Prior, landscape architect and managing director of Edaw, clearly started with the proposition that this landscape is the context within which the huge variety of Olympic developments will take shape - the transport infrastructure, stadiums, housing.

    Prunings XXI 2006

  • Now this landscape is a stage removed, half-blurred by dreams, its shades and shapes encroach on our security.

    Forest Magician Sharon Bakar 2005

  • Now this landscape is a stage removed, half-blurred by dreams, its shades and shapes encroach on our security.

    Archive 2005-12-01 Sharon Bakar 2005

  • "I've fished a lot of places, but this might be the only one where the landscape is as interesting as the fishing," he said.

    Trout Fishing in the Desert of Marble Canyon 2004

  • As I said, the landscape is absolutely magnificent.

    Romania—The Bright Future and Present Problems 1995

  • What 16th-century mariners pronounced as “landschop” to uneducated alongshore Englishmen became in time landskap or landskep, then landskip, then landscape.

    How to Read the Land The MIT Press Reader 2022

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