dē-scrībo, psi, ptum (in MSS. and edd. often confounded with discribo, q. v.), 3, v. a.
I To copy off, transcribe any thing from an original (freq. in Cic.; elsewh. rare): scripsit Balbus ad me, se a te (i. e. e tuo exemplo) quintum de Finibus librum descripsisse, Cic. Att. 13, 21; cf. id. Ac. 2 ( Luc. ), 4, 11: epistolam, id. Att. 8, 9; id. Fam. 12, 17, 2; 12, 7, 22: legem, Suet. Cal. 41; id. Dom. 20; so, to write down, write out : carmina in foliis, Verg. A. 3, 445; in carved letters: in viridi cortice carmina, id. E. 5, 14.— Class. and far more freq.,
II To sketch off, to describe in painting, writing , etc.: delineare, definire.
A Lit.: non potuit pictor rectius describere ejus formam, Plaut. As. 2, 3, 22; so, geometricas formas in harena, Cic. Rep. 1, 17 fin. : formas in pulvere, Liv. 25, 31; cf. Cic. Fin. 5, 19; id. Clu. 32, 87; id. Sen. 14, 49: sphaeram, id. Rep. 1, 14; cf. caelum, Varr. R. R. 2, 1, 7: caeli meatus radio, Verg. A. 6, 851; cf. id. E. 3, 41: vitam votivā tabellā, Hor. S. 2, 1, 33 et saep.—
B Trop.
1 To represent, delineate, describe : malos mores, Plaut. Mil. 3, 1, 165; cf.: hominum sermones moresque, Cic. Or. 40, 138: definienda res erit verbis et breviter describenda, id. Inv. 1, 8 fin : qualem (mulierem) ego paulo ante descripsi, id. Cael. 20, 50; id. Phil. 2, 44; id. Sull. 29 fin. : me latronem ac sicarium, id. Mil. 18, 47: si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus ac fur, etc., Hor. S. 1, 4, 3: malo carmine, id. Ep. 2, 1, 154; Quint. 3, 4, 3: vulnera Parthi, Hor. S. 2, 1, 15: lucum, aram Dianae, flumen Rhenum, pluvium arcum, id. A. P. 18 et saep.: praecepta, id. S. 2, 3, 34: facta versibus, Nep. Att. 18, 6. —Rarely
β with acc. and inf.: nec qui descripsit corrumpi semina matrum, Ov. Tr. 2, 415; Gell. 9, 1.— Part. subst. : dēscrip-ta , ōrum, n.: recitari factorum dictorumque ejus descripta per dies jussit, the diary , Tac. A. 6, 24.—
2 To mark off, define, divide, distribute into parts. (But whenever the notion of distribution or division is implied, the form discribo seems to have been used by class. writers; and is now restored where de-scr. is found in earlier edd., e.g. Cic. Rep. 2, 8; id. de Or. 2, 71, 288; id. Sest. 30, 66 et saep.) Cf.: libertinos in quatuor urbanas tribus, Liv. 45, 15: annum in duodecim menses, Liv. 1, 19; Flor. 1, 2, 2. —Without in. : commode omnes descripti, aetates, classes, equitatus, Cic. Rep. 4, 2; and: classes centuriasque et hunc ordinem ex censu descripsit, Liv. 1, 42: terram, Vulg. Jos. 18, 6 al. et saep.—
3 Aliquid (alicui), to ascribe, apportion, appoint, assign to any one (cf. remark, no. 2 supra); cf.: vecturas frumenti finitimis civitatibus, * Caes. B. C. 3, 42, 4; Liv. 1, 32 al.: officia, to define , Cic. Ac. 2 ( Luc. ), 36; id. Fam. 12, 1: vices (poetae), Hor. A. P. 86: munera pugnae, Sil. 9, 267 et saep.
IX —Hence, dēscrip-tus , a, um, P. a., qs. marked out, i. e. precisely ordered, properly arranged (ap. Cic.): materies orationis omnibus locis descripta, instructa ornataque, Cic. de Or. 2, 34, 145; cf.: ordo verborum, id. Or. 59, 200: natura nihil est aptius, nihil descriptius, id. Fin. 3, 22, 74.— Neutr. plur. as subst.: dēscrip-ta , orum, things recorded, writings , Tac. A. 6, 24.— Sup. does not occur.—* Adv.: dē-scriptē , distinctly, precisely : descripte et electe digerere, opp. confuse et permixte dispergere, Cic. Inv. 1, 30, 49.