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sketch - 7 dictionary results

sketch

  [skech]
Use sketch in a Sentence
–noun
1. a simply or hastily executed drawing or painting, esp. a preliminary one, giving the essential features without the details.
2. a rough design, plan, or draft, as of a book.
3. a brief or hasty outline of facts, occurrences, etc.: a sketch of his life.
4. a short, usually descriptive, essay, history, or story.
5. a short play or slight dramatic performance, as one forming part of a vaudeville program.
–verb (used with object)
6. to make a sketch of.
7. to set forth in a brief or general account: He sketched his own part in the affair.
8. Metallurgy. (in a steel mill or the like) to mark (a piece) for cutting.
–verb (used without object)
9. to make a sketch or sketches.
Origin:
1660–70; < D schets (n.) ≪ It schizzo < L schedium extemporaneous poem, n. use of neut. of schedius extempore < Gk schédios

Related forms:
sketcher, noun
sketch⋅ing⋅ly, adverb
sketchlike, adjective

Synonyms:
2. outline. 5. skit, act, routine. 6. draw, outline, design, rough out, delineate, represent. See depict.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To sketch
sketch   (skěch)   
n.  
  1. A hasty or undetailed drawing or painting often made as a preliminary study.
  2. A brief general account or presentation; an outline.
    1. A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or a short story.
    2. Music A brief composition, especially for the piano.
    3. A short, often satirical scene or play in a revue or variety show; a skit.
  4. Informal An amusing person.
v.   sketched, sketch·ing, sketch·es

v.   tr.
To make a sketch of; outline.
v.   intr.
To make a sketch.

[Dutch schets, from Italian schizzo, from schizzare, to splash, of imitative origin.]
sketch'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Sketch

Sketch\, n. [D. schets, fr. It. schizzo a sketch, a splash (whence also F. esquisse; cf. Esquisse.); cf. It. schizzare to splash, to sketch.] An outline or general delineation of anything; a first rough or incomplete draught or plan of any design; especially, in the fine arts, such a representation of an object or scene as serves the artist's purpose by recording its chief features; also, a preliminary study for an original work.

Syn: Outline; delineation; draught; plan; design.

Usage: Sketch, Outline, Delineation. An outline gives only the bounding lines of some scene or picture. A sketch fills up the outline in part, giving broad touches, by which an imperfect idea may be conveyed. A delineation goes further, carrying out the more striking features of the picture, and going so much into detail as to furnish a clear conception of the whole. Figuratively, we may speak of the outlines of a plan, of a work, of a project, etc., which serve as a basis on which the subordinate parts are formed, or of sketches of countries, characters, manners, etc., which give us a general idea of the things described. --Crabb.

Sketch

Sketch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sketched; p. pr. & vb. n. Sketching.] [Cf D. schetsen, It. schizzare. See Sketch, n.]

1. To draw the outline or chief features of; to make a rought of.

2. To plan or describe by giving the principal points or ideas of.

Syn: To delineate; design; draught; depict.

Sketch

Sketch\, v. i. To make sketches, as of landscapes.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : sketch
Spanish: esbozo, croquis,
German: die Skizze,
Japanese: スケッチ
More Translations »

sketch 
"rough drawing intended to serve as the bases for a finished picture," 1668, from Du. schets, from It. schizzo "sketch, drawing," lit. "a splash, squirt," from schizzare "to splash or squirt," of uncertain origin, perhaps from L. schedium "an extemporaneous poem," from Gk. skedios "temporary, extemporaneous," related to skhein, aor. inf. of ekhein "to have" (see scheme). Ger. Skizze, Fr. esquisse, Sp. esquicio are from Italian. The verb is attested from 1694. Extended sense of "brief account" is from 1668; meaning "short play or performance, usually comic" is from 1789. Sketchy first recorded 1805.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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sketch

traditionally a rough drawing or painting in which an artist notes down his preliminary ideas for a work that will eventually be realized with greater precision and detail. The term also applies to brief creative pieces that per se may have artistic merit

Learn more about sketch with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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