noun
sketch
A quick or unfinished drawing or brief descriptive account.
Where it comes from
Sketch ordinarily means a quick or unfinished drawing or brief descriptive account. English sketch came from Dutch schets, which came from Italian schizzo, literally a splash, from the imitative verb schizzare, to splash or spurt. A quick splash or spurt of ink became an image for a rapidly made preliminary drawing.
How the meaning developed
The idea of something slight and unfinished then widened to outlines in writing, short descriptive pieces, brief theatrical scenes, and the adjective sketchy.
From our TikTok: Read post 1
Sources
- Sketch Definition & Meaning
- American Heritage Dictionary Entry: sketch
- Drawing a Conclusion About 'Sketchy'
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-10-05. Report a correction.