A quick, simple drawing that shows the main features of something but not all the details. It can also mean a short written or performed scene, often humorous.
“Sketch” comes from Dutch “schets” and Italian “schizzo,” meaning “a rough drawing,” from a verb meaning “to splash” or “to squirt.” The idea was that a sketch was thrown or dashed off quickly. English adopted it to mean any rough first version of an artwork or idea.
A sketch is the artistic version of a “draft”—it’s supposed to be rough. That’s why many great paintings, buildings, and even jokes start life as messy little sketches. If your sketch looks imperfect, that means you’re using it exactly the way the word was born to be used.
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