Verb

(illustrat)

(obsolete) To shed light upon; to illuminate.

* Were the Moon smooth, as a looking glass, a very small part would be seen by any particular eye to be illustrated by the Sun.

* Chapman

Here, when the moon illustrates all the sky.

To clarify something by giving, or serving as, an example or a comparison.

* Milton

To prove him, and illustrate his high worth.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=September 7 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Moldova 0-5 England , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=England were graphically illustrating the huge gulf in class between the sides and it was no surprise when Lampard added the second just before the half hour. Steven Gerrard found his Liverpool team-mate Glen Johnson and Lampard arrived in the area with perfect timing to glide a header beyond Namasco.}}

* We illustrate our definitions by including quotations or simple examples.

To provide a book or other publication with pictures, diagrams or other explanatory or decorative features.

* The economics textbook was illustrated with many graphs.

(obsolete) To give renown or honour to; to make illustrious; to glorify.

* Milton

Matter to me of glory, whom their hate / Illustrates .

Verb

(en verb)

To make a short reference to something.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms.

To utter an word or expression in order to refer to the expression itself, as opposed to its usual referent.

* 2006 , Tony Evans, The Transforming Word: Discovering the Power and Provision of the Bible , Moody Publishers (ISBN 9780802480354), page 140

I can illustrate this by mentioning the word lead. Now you have no way of knowing for sure which meaning I have in mind until I give it some context by using it in a sentence.

* 2009 , Lieven Vandelanotte, Speech and Thought Representation in English: A Cognitive-functional Approach , Walter de Gruyter (ISBN 9783110205893), page 124

If the verbatimness view derives from the popular notion that DST repeats 'the actual words spoken', a second line of thought takes its cue from Quine's (1940: 23–26, 1960: 146–156) philosophical distinction between words which are “used” vs. words which are merely “mentioned ”.

* 2013 , Richard Hanley, South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating , Open Court (ISBN 9780812697742)