E*pit"o*me (?), n.; pl. Epitomes (#). [L., fr. Gr. a surface incision, also, and abridgment, fr. to cut into, cut short; upon + to cut: cf. F. 'epitome. See Tome.]
1.
A work in which the contents of a former work are reduced within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement.
[An] epitome of the contents of a very large book.
Sydney Smith.
2.
A compact or condensed representation of anything.
An epitome of English fashionable life.
Carlyle.
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome.
Dryden.
Syn. -- Abridgement; compendium; compend; abstract; synopsis; abbreviature. See Abridgment.
© Webster 1913.