sketch

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word sketch. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word sketch, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say sketch in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word sketch you have here. The definition of the word sketch will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofsketch, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Sketch

English

A pen sketch (1) of a frog.
A sketch of a scheme.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Dutch schets or German Skizze, from Italian schizzo, from Latin schedium, from Ancient Greek σχέδιος (skhédios, “made suddenly, off-hand”), from σχεδόν (skhedón, “near, nearby”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “I hold”). Compare scheme.

Pronunciation

Verb

sketch (third-person singular simple present sketches, present participle sketching, simple past and past participle sketched)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a brief, basic drawing.
    I usually sketch with a pen rather than a pencil.
  2. (transitive) To describe briefly and with very few details.
    He sketched the accident, sticking to the facts as they had happened.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

sketch (plural sketches)

  1. A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC:
      Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
    • 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106:
      Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
  2. A rough design, plan, or draft, as a rough draft of a book.
  3. A brief description of a person or account of an incident; a general presentation or outline.
    Synonyms: pen picture, pen portrait
    I have to write a character sketch for a novel study.
  4. A brief, light, or unfinished dramatic, musical, or literary work or idea; especially a short, often humorous or satirical scene or play, frequently as part of a revue or variety show.
    Synonym: skit
    1. A brief musical composition or theme, especially for the piano.
    2. A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or short story.
  5. (informal) An amusing person.
  6. (slang, Ireland) A lookout; vigilant watch for something.
    to keep sketch
  7. (UK) A humorous newspaper article summarizing political events, making heavy use of metaphor, paraphrase and caricature.
    • 1901, Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality:
      A very capable journalist, he wrote the Parliamentary sketch for the Pall Mall and the Westminster Gazette for several years.
    • 1978, Robin Callender Smith, Press law, Sweet and Maxwell:
      The Daily Telegraph sketch concentrated on the Bishop's attack and included rebutting remarks from Lord Longford, describing the attack as monumentally unfair because Mr. Cook could not reply.
    • 2012, Andrew Gimson, Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
      Frank had won a reputation while writing the Times sketch as one of the wittiest writers and talkers in England.
  8. (category theory) A formal specification of a mathematical structure or a data type described in terms of a graph and diagrams (and cones (and cocones)) on it. It can be implemented by means of “models”, which are functors which are graph homomorphisms from the formal specification to categories such that the diagrams become commutative, the cones become limiting (i.e., products), the cocones become colimiting (i.e., sums).

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → German: Sketch
  • → Italian: sketch
  • → Portuguese: esquete (Brasilian), sketch (European)
  • → Turkish: skeç

Translations

lookout — see lookout
humorous newspaper article

Adjective

sketch (comparative more sketch, superlative most sketch)

  1. (informal) Sketchy, shady, questionable.
    • 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 28:
      You call at 9 am on a Saturday, lucky I'm even awake. [...] Then expect me to pick you up at a gas station near a loony bin, that's sketch. I don't even want to ask what you're doing.

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English sketch, from Dutch schets.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /skɛtʃ/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: sketch

Noun

sketch m (plural sketches, diminutive sketchje n)

  1. sketch, skit (short comic work)

Derived terms

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English sketch.

Pronunciation

Noun

sketch m (plural sketchs)

  1. sketch, skit (short comic work)

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English sketch from Dutch schets, from Italian schizzo, from Latin schedium, from Ancient Greek σχέδιος (skhédios, “made suddenly, off-hand”).

Pronunciation

Noun

sketch m (invariable)

  1. sketch, skit (short comic work)

References

  1. ^ sketch in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English sketch.

Noun

sketch m (plural sketches)

  1. Alternative form of esquete
    Synonym: rábula

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English sketch.

Pronunciation

Noun

sketch m (plural sketches)

  1. skit; sketch (short comic work)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English sketch, from Dutch schets, from Italian schizzo. Doublet of skiss.

Noun

sketch c

  1. sketch, skit (short comic work)

Declension

Declension of sketch 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative sketch sketchen sketcher sketcherna
Genitive sketchs sketchens sketchers sketchernas

See also

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia