Limn By Deane Barker • April 2, 2022 • Definition: to illustrate a text; to “paint a picture” with words Some definitions describe the literary usage as “archaic.” (Though I encountered it in a modern context – see below.) It’s somewhat derived from “illuminate” in Old English. Why I Looked It Up In the book flap for Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open: Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned.