icon in IT Glossary

A small picture that represents an object or program.
Icons are very useful in applications that use windows,
because with the click of a mouse button you can shrink
an entire window into a small icon.
(This is sometimes called minimizing.)
To redisplay the window, you merely move
the pointer to the icon and click
(or double click) a mouse button.
(This is sometimes called restoring or maximizing)
Icons are a principal feature of graphical user interfaces.