I. sketch 1 /sketʃ/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Language: Dutch ; Origin: schets , from Italian schizzo , from schizzare 'to splash' ]
1 . a simple, quickly made drawing that does not show much detail
sketch of
Cantor drew a rough sketch of his apartment on a napkin.
2 . a short humorous scene on a television programme, in a theatre etc, that is part of a larger show:
Her TV programme is made up of a series of comic sketches.
3 . a short written or spoken description
sketch of
a brief sketch of the main weaknesses of the British economy
a thumbnail sketch (=very brief description) of topics treated in depth elsewhere
II. sketch 2 BrE AmE verb
1 . [intransitive and transitive] to draw a sketch of something
2 . ( also sketch out ) [transitive] to describe something in a general way, giving the basic ideas:
Holford sketched a 10-year programme for rebuilding the city.
sketch in ↔ something phrasal verb
to add more information about something:
I’d like to sketch in a few details for you.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ draw to make a picture, pattern etc using a pen or pencil:
The children were asked to draw a picture of their families.
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I’m going to art classes to learn how to draw.
▪ sketch /sketʃ/ to draw a picture of something or someone quickly and without a lot of detail:
Roy took a pencil and sketched the bird quickly, before it moved.
▪ illustrate to draw the pictures in a book:
It’s a beautiful book, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
▪ doodle /ˈduːdl/ to draw shapes or patterns without really thinking about what you are doing:
He was on the phone, doodling on his notepad as he spoke.
▪ scribble to draw shapes or lines without making a definite picture or pattern. Small children do this before they have learned to draw or write:
At the age of two, she loved scribbling with crayons and coloured pencils.
▪ trace to copy a picture by putting a piece of thin paper over it and drawing the lines that you can see through the paper:
First trace the map, and then copy it into your workbooks.