Posterized

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Depicted or rendered in a graphic style suitable for large-scale prints; overwhelmed or dominated decisively, especially in sports when an athlete is spectacularly outdone; turned into a poster or reduced to a poster-like image
2. Transformed into a highly stylized visual format for display purposes; subjected to a powerful or humiliating defeat often resulting in visual documentation; converted into a printable art form resembling a poster
3. Shown or created with bold colors and contrasts for large reproductions; outperformed in a dramatic and memorable manner, frequently in athletic competition; produced as an image designed for wall display similar to a poster

Etymology: "Posterize" began as a plain technical term for a printing process. It is formed from "poster" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ize," meaning to make or do something. The original sense was to reduce an image to a small number of flat colours, the way a print run for posters was made, so that the picture looked like a bold, graphic poster. That sense still stands, and it is the one used in image editing, where a photo is reduced to a few colour bands. The basketball sense is the surprising one. In the 2000s and 2010s, American slang turned "posterize" into a verb for leaping over an opponent to score a slam dunk so spectacular that a photograph of it might end up printed on a poster. The defeat sense, humiliating someone in a way that gets recorded, grew from the same spectacle: the victim is the one who gets dunked on, and the moment is captured for all to see.

Synonyms: highlighted, showcased, featured, emphasized

Antonyms: obscured, ignored, hidden