sketch

[skech]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sketch ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a simply or hastily executed drawing or painting, especially a preliminary one, giving the essential features without the details.

a rough design, plan, or draft, as of a book.

a brief or hasty outline of facts, occurrences, etc.: a sketch of his life.

a short, usually descriptive, essay, history, or story.

a short play or slight dramatic performance, as one forming part of a vaudeville program.

verb (used with object)

to make a sketch of.

to set forth in a brief or general account: He sketched his own part in the affair.

Metallurgy. (in a steel mill or the like) to mark (a piece) for cutting.

verb (used without object)

to make a sketch or sketches.

Origin of sketch

1660–70; < Dutch schets (noun) ≪ Italian schizzo < Latin schedium extemporaneous poem, noun use of neuter of schedius extempore < Greek schédios

Related formssketch·er, nounsketch·ing·ly, adverbsketch·like, adjectivere·sketch, verb (used with object)un·sketched, adjectivewell-sketched, adjective

Synonyms for sketch

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sketch ON THESAURUS.COM

2. outline. 5. skit, act, routine. 6. draw, outline, design, rough out, delineate, represent.

Synonym study

6. See depict.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for sketch

blueprint, picture, account, copy, likeness, description, chart, vignette, summary, depiction, version, illustration, portrayal, piece, painting, cartoon, delineate, portray, depict, paint

Examples from the Web for sketch

Contemporary Examples of sketch

Then they would go to a hotel afterwards and combine the parts they had remembered in one sketch.
The Big Business of Fashion Counterfeits
Lizzie Crocker
December 24, 2014
As for the artist, the great Turner canvases, his watercolors and his sketch books are never allowed to speak.
Why Can’t Movies Capture Genius?
Clive Irving
December 14, 2014
The premise of the sketch was that sex was too spontaneous to be regulated, and the quiz show played that idea to the hilt.
How Antioch College Got Rape Right 20 Years Ago
Nicolaus Mills
December 10, 2014
Even though it was just a line in a sketch, were you like, “I am saying a line in a sketch on SNL?”
How Aidy Bryant Stealthily Became Your Favorite ‘Saturday Night Live’ Star
Kevin Fallon
October 31, 2014
So I wrote that sketch with Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider.
How Aidy Bryant Stealthily Became Your Favorite ‘Saturday Night Live’ Star
Kevin Fallon
October 31, 2014

Historical Examples of sketch

We must now close our sketch of those diversified and pleasant volumes.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
You must have lost that sketch after you reached San Francisco.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
I arose from my chair and examined the sketch of the starving mountaineer.
The Underdog
F. Hopkinson Smith
"I wanted to have a talk to you about that sketch," he said to John.
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine
Mr. Cream took the MS. of John's sketch from his pocket and spread it on the table.
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine

British Dictionary definitions for sketch

sketch

noun

a rapid drawing or painting, often a study for subsequent elaboration

a brief usually descriptive and informal essay or other literary composition

a short play, often comic, forming part of a revue

a short evocative piece of instrumental music, esp for piano

any brief outline

verb

to make a rough drawing (of)

(tr often foll by out) to make a brief description of

Derived Formssketchable, adjectivesketcher, noun

Word Origin for sketch

C17: from Dutch schets, via Italian from Latin schedius hastily made, from Greek skhedios unprepared

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sketch

"rough drawing intended to serve as the basis for a finished picture," 1660s, from Dutch schets or Low German skizze, both apparently 17c. artists' borrowings from Italian schizzo "sketch, drawing," which is commonly said to be from Latin *schedius (OED compares schedia "raft," schedium "an extemporaneous poem"), from or related to Greek skhedios "temporary, extemporaneous, done or made off-hand," related to skhema "form, shape, appearance" (see scheme (n.)). But according to Barnhart Italian schizzo is a special use of schizzo "a splash, squirt," from schizzare "to splash or squirt," of uncertain origin.

Extended sense of "brief account" is from 1660s; meaning "short play or performance, usually comic" is from 1789. Sketch-book recorded from 1820. German Skizze, French esquisse, Spanish esquicio are likewise from Italian schizzo.

1690s, "present the essential facts of," from sketch (n.). Meaning "draw, portray in outline and partial shading" is from 1725. Related: Sketched; sketcher; sketching.