adumbration

[Lat. a dumb ratio = a drawing, a sketch, from adumbro.] 1. Ord. Lang.: The act of faintly shadowing forth; the state of being faintly shadowed forth; the thing which in such a case casts the shadow and forms the image. ( Lit. & fig .) "To make some adumbration of that we mean.' -Bacon : Nat . Hist ., Cent. II., § 187. 2. Her.: An adumbration or transparency is a figure on a coat of arms traced in outline only, or painted in a darker shade of the same colour as the field or background on which it is represented. Families who had lost their po e ions, but did not like to surrender their armorial bearings, are said to have occasionally adopted this method of indicating their peculiar position. (Glo . of Heraldry .) [A.S. adún, adúne =