sketch

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.

verb

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.

noun

1. A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
   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. 2012-03, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106
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.
   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.
   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.
   A very capable journalist, he wrote the Parliamentary sketch for the Pall Mall and the Westminster Gazette for several years. 1901, Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality
   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. 1978, Robin Callender Smith, Press law, Sweet and Maxwell
   Frank had won a reputation while writing the Times sketch as one of the wittiest writers and talkers in England. 2012, Andrew Gimson, Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson, Simon and Schuster
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).

adj

1. (Canada, US, informal) Sketchy, shady, questionable.
   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. 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 28