From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsketchsketch1 /sketʃ/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 AVPICTUREa simple, quickly made drawing that does not show much detailsketch of Cantor drew a rough sketch of his apartment on a napkin.2 AMAPa 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 TCNDESCRIBEa short written or spoken descriptionsketch of a brief sketch of the main weaknesses of the British economy a thumbnail sketch (=very brief description) of topics treated in depth elsewhere
Examples from the Corpus
sketch• The architect did a sketch of how the building will look when it's finished.• Phil drew a sketch to show us what the new school would look like.• She opened her folder and took out a sketch of her mother.• By 2008 the artists' sketches of a red-roofed, neo-Levantine financial district will have become reality.• Soon the blurred sketch of the view will disappear and in its place will come an entanglement of lights.• a brief sketch of the life and times of Herman Melville• Brief sketches of the two types of procedure may first be helpful.• a comedy sketch show• Berkeley police released a composite sketch of the man witnesses say they saw leaving the neighborhood.• In 1853 Delacroix recorded a discussion in which it was proposed that Durieu might publish his sketches by means of photography.• Official sketches show a small warren of rooms, lit by artificial lights and stuffed with compact biological systems.• Gabriella did a quick sketch of her baby daughter.• I've done a rough sketch of how to get to the church.• He was wasting her money as he handled these sketches.• I thought your sketches of the garden were very attractive.rough sketch• I enclose details of how to find the school and a rough sketch map showing the route from the A6.• Draw a rough sketch and then translate them all in a permanent fashion to the wall.• Cantor picked up his paper napkin and drew a rough sketch of a cell membrane.• Make a rough sketch of a parachute on the board.• Yoyo studied the rough sketch a moment.• She sighed again and sorted through the rough sketches.• Also, try to make a very rough sketch of the rooms on each floor.thumbnail sketch• A thumbnail sketch of their functions and modes or organisation was also given.• A very tightly written little thumbnail sketch.• But written instructions in the blank spaces of books themselves do survive and so do tiny marginal thumbnail sketches to indicate subjects.• This thumbnail sketch of a complicated web of negotiations says some unexpected things about Mr Major.sketchsketch2 ●●○ verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]AVDRAW to draw a sketch of something► see thesaurus at draw2 (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→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
sketch• He sat by the river, sketching.• Yeltsin sketched an aggressive battle plan for winning back his countrymen.• I started sketching, but my hand shook.• The image of the war that I sketched earlier continues to color the efforts of many honest people.• He sat against the wall sketching on a pad with colored pencils, a picture of telephone poles.• The remarks in this section only sketch out a province for which a proper theory of discourse deixis might provide an account.• But Labour, too, was disappointing in its reluctance to sketch out what an alternative science policy might look like.• Maggie grabbed a piece of paper and quickly sketched the bird before it flew away.• Finally, we sketch the evolution of Marxism after Marx.• The departmental profiles that follow sketch the research interests of their members.• Truc, normally so good natured, was shouting angrily at Nina who was sitting on the raft and sketching the scene.Origin sketch1 (1600-1700) Dutch schets, from Italian schizzo, from schizzare “to splash” 