thumbnail sketch

1. A brief outline or cursory description, as in Let me give you a thumbnail sketch of the situation. This idiom alludes to drawing a picture no larger than a thumbnail. [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

But if that thumbnail sketch makes “Lux” sound like homework, the songs themselves are immediate and visceral, and the singer’s impassioned delivery is an invitation to listen more closely.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Any thumbnail sketch of the 38-year-old is bound to start with the fact that he was for more than five years the partner of Mr Attal.

Read more on BBC

"It is very easy to draw a very bold thumbnail sketch of Margaret and you can make her a cliché," the Oscar-nominated actress says.

Read more on BBC

But, given the museum’s three small rooms, it’s a thumbnail sketch of a thumbnail sketch.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Something of a thumbnail sketch, it has no catalog.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• analysis 
• biography 
• chart 
• review 
• sketch 
• study 
• survey