sketch
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.
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.
to make a sketch or sketches.
Origin of sketch
1synonym study For sketch
Other words for sketch
Other words from sketch
- sketcher, noun
- sketch·ing·ly, adverb
- sketchlike, adjective
- re·sketch, verb (used with object)
- un·sketched, adjective
- well-sketched, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use sketch in a sentence
Astronomers have spent centuries filling in their sketches of our corner of the Milky Way.
These sketches caught public attention in the early 20th century, as planes gave us a bird’s-eye view—the best way to take them in.
The famous Nazca lines aren’t mysterious—but they are ingenious | Sara Kiley Watson | January 3, 2021 | Popular-ScienceXochi addresses the issue by labeling its bags and cartons with a sketch of the chef’s face.
Taqueria Xochi serves mouthwatering Mexican food from a tiny U Street storefront | Tom Sietsema | December 18, 2020 | Washington PostThis process takes the data and summarizes it into a sketch.
So, an IR photograph may be able to reveal an original sketch on a canvas underneath layers of paint in a work of art.
Fujifilm’s new infrared camera can see things your eyes can’t | Stan Horaczek | November 27, 2020 | Popular-Science
“Please,” he laughed, handing me the map after he was finished sketching.
The Life and Hard Times Of The Family A Cuban Defector Left Behind | Brin-Jonathan Butler | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHowever, on other issues, she still was sketching out her positions.
Meet Montana's Nose-Ringed Candidate for the U.S. Senate | Ben Jacobs | August 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe designer, who is often considered one of the last great couturiers, jokes that he could have kept on sketching forever.
Christian Lacroix’s Couture Collection for Schiaparelli | Alice Cavanagh | July 1, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTOn the first two, look for tone: is Obama preparing for a streetfight, or sketching the outlines of a deal?
What to Look for In Tonight's State of the Union | Megan McArdle | February 12, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTA TV pilot for HBO, and a book of stories that I'm just now sketching out.
How I Write: ‘The Tragedy of Arthur’ by Arthur Phillips | Noah Charney | August 22, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTShe also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. | Clara Erskine ClementGuys was not what is properly called an artist, but he had the particular gift of sketching the chief points of things rapidly.
Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile GautierInstead, he seemed to be sketching a face, which presently he tore carefully up into small pieces and destroyed.
The Double Four | E. Phillips OppenheimBefore this sculpture, with its obscure designs, a man might have dreamed of Prometheus roughly sketching for Michael Angelo.
Toilers of the Sea | Victor HugoMinetta very much wants to be an artist, and you meet her with her sketching things all over the place.
Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
British Dictionary definitions for sketch
/ (skɛtʃ) /
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
to make a rough drawing (of)
(tr often foll by out) to make a brief description of
Origin of sketch
1Derived forms of sketch
- sketchable, adjective
- sketcher, noun
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
Browse