film

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

film, n. [AS. film skin, fr. fell skin; akin to fylmen membrane, OFries. filmene skin. See Fell skin.].

•  A thin skin; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.  [1913 Webster]

  "He from thick films shall purge the visual ray."  [1913 Webster]
•  hence, any thin layer covering a surface.  [1913 Webster]
•  A slender thread, as that of a cobweb.  [1913 Webster]

  "Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film."  [1913 Webster]
•  The layer, usually of gelatin or collodion, containing the sensitive salts of photographic plates.  [PJC]
•  a flexible sheet of celluloid or other plastic material to which a light-sensitive layer has been applied, used for recording images by the processes of photography. It is commonly used in rolls mounted within light-proof canisters suitable for simple insertion into cameras designed for such canisters. On such rolls, varying numbers of photographs may be taken before the canister needs to be replaced.  [PJC]
•  a motion picture.  [PJC]
•  the art of making motion pictures; -- used mostly in the phrase the film.  [PJC]
•  a thin transparent sheet of plastic, used for wrapping objects; as, polyethylene film.  [PJC]

Celluloid film (Photog.), a thin flexible sheet of celluloid, coated with a sensitized emulsion of gelatin, and used as a substitute for photographic plates. -- Cut film (Photog.), a celluloid film cut into pieces suitable for use in a camera.

film, v. t. 

•  To cover with a thin skin or pellicle.  [1913 Webster]

  "It will but skin and film the ulcerous place."  [1913 Webster]
•  to make a motion picture of (any event or literary work); to record with a movie camera; as, to film the inauguration ceremony; to film Dostoevsky's War and Peace.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

film, n. & v.
--n.
1 a thin coating or covering layer.
2 Photog. a strip or sheet of plastic or other flexible base coated with light-sensitive emulsion for exposure in a camera, either as individual visual representations or as a sequence which form the illusion of movement when shown in rapid succession.
3 a a representation of a story, episode, etc., on a film, with the illusion of movement. b a story represented in this way. c (in pl.) the cinema industry.
4 a slight veil or haze etc.
5 a dimness or morbid growth affecting the eyes.
6 a fine thread or filament .
--v.
1 a tr. make a photographic film of (a scene, person, etc.). b tr. (also absol.) make a cinema or television film of (a book etc.). c intr. be (well or ill) suited for reproduction on film.
2 tr. & intr. cover or become covered with or as with a film.

Idiom

film-goer a person who frequents the cinema. film star a celebrated actor or actress in films. film-strip a series of transparencies in a strip for projection.

Etymology

OE filmen membrane f. WG, rel. to FELL(5)

THESAURUS

film

3-D, Cinemascope, Cinerama, London fog, London special, Photostat, Rabelaisianism, Technicolor, Western, X-rated movie, X-ray, Xerox, actor-proof, all-star, animated cartoon, apply to, backing, ballet, balletic, bawdiness, bawdry, bibliofilm, bipack, black-and-white film, blanket, blear, block, blue movie, blur, bulletin board, calotype, canopy, capture on film, card, cartoon, cartridge, catalog card, chiller, cine, cinema, cinematic, cinematographic, cloak, clothe, cloud, coat, coating, collop, color film, color negative film, cope, cover, cover up, covering, cowl, creepie, curtain, cut, deal, defocus, dim, dirt, dirtiness, dirty movie, disc, disk, documentary, documentary film, dope, dramatic, dramatical, dramaturgic, drisk, drizzling mist, dry plate, dusting, eclipse, educational film, emulsion, enamel, erotic art, erotic literature, erotographomania, facing, fade away, feature, fescenninity, feuille, file, filing card, filmic, filth, filthiness, flap, flick, flicker, fog, foil, fold, foulness, frame, frost smoke, fur, gauze, glaze, ham, hammy, haze, haziness, histrionic, hood, horror picture, horse opera, iconolagny, index card, integument, lacquer, lamella, lamina, laminated glass, laminated wood, lap, lay on, lay over, layer, leaf, legitimate, lewdness, library catalog, lose resolution, magnetic tape, mantle, mask, melodramatic, membrane, microcard, microdot, microfiche, microfilm, milked, mist, mistiness, monochromatic film, monodramatic, motion picture, motion-picture film, motion-picture show, movie, moving picture, muffle, mug, murkiness, nastiness, negative, newsreel, nudie, obduce, obscenity, obscure, occult, offensiveness, operatic, orthochromatic film, overacted, overlay, overplayed, overspread, pack, paint, pale, pan, panchromatic film, pane, panel, patina, pea soup, pea-soup fog, peasouper, peel, pellicle, phonograph record, photodrama, photograph, photographic paper, photomap, photoplay, pic, picture, picture show, plait, plank, plate, plating, platter, ply, plywood, pornographic art, pornographic film, pornographic literature, pornographomania, pornography, preview, printing paper, put on, radiograph, rasher, revetment, ribaldry, roentgenograph, roll, safety glass, salaciousness, salacity, scale, scenic, scoreboard, scorecard, scoresheet, screen, scum, scurrility, sexploitation, sheet, shield, shoot, short, show, silent, silent film, skin, skin flick, slab, slat, slice, slip, smog, smut, smuttiness, snap, snapshoot, snapshot, sneak preview, soft-core pornography, soften, sound film, sound track, sound-on-film, soundstripe, spaghetti Western, spectacular, spread over, stag film, stagelike, stageworthy, stagy, starstruck, steam, stellar, superimpose, superpose, table, tablet, take, take a photograph, talbotype, talkie, talking picture, tape, theaterlike, theatrical, thespian, thriller, thrown away, ticker tape, trailer, tripack, underacted, underground film, underplayed, vapor, varnish, vaudevillian, vehicle, veil, veneer, video, videotape, vileness, wafer

ROGET THESAURUS

film

Layer

N layer, stratum, strata, course, bed, zone, substratum, substrata, floor, flag, stage, story, tier, slab, escarpment, table, tablet, dess, flagstone, board, plank, trencher, platter, plate, lamina, lamella, sheet, foil, wafer, scale, flake, peel, coat, pellicle, membrane, film, leaf, slice, shive, cut, rasher, shaving, integument, eschar, stratification, scaliness, nest of boxes, coats of an onion, monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, lamellar, lamellated, lamelliform, layered, laminated, laminiferous, micaceous, schistose, schistous, scaly, filmy, membranous, pellicular, flaky, squamous, foliated, foliaceous, stratified, stratiform, tabular, discoid, spathic, spathose, trilamellar, graphitic.

Opacity

N opacity, opaqueness, film, cloud, opaque, impervious to light, adiaphanous, dim, turbid, thick, muddy, opacous, obfuscated, fuliginous, cloud, hazy, misty, foggy, vaporous, nubiferous, muggy, smoky, fumid, murky, dirty.

Semitransparency

N semitransparency, translucency, semiopacity, opalescence, milkiness, pearliness, gauze, muslin, film, mica, mother-of-pearl, nacre, mist, opal, turbidity, Adj, semitransparent, translucent, semipellucid, semidiaphanous, semiopacous, semiopaque, opalescent, opaline, pearly, milky, frosted, nacreous, semitransparent, translucent, semipellucid, semidiaphanous, semiopacous, semiopaque, opalescent, opaline, pearly, milky, frosted, nacreous, V, opalesce, (ii) SPECIFIC LIGHT.