sketch n.
1. a very small quantity, a single drop.
 | Fifty Years Life II 258: I have had [...] just a sketch of whisky with water from the burn . |
2. of an individual.
(a) a ridiculous or amusing person or sight.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Coburg Leader (Vic.) 31 Aug. 1/4: Those two Blyth-street guns [...] who call other boys sketches and other such howrid expressions. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘A Long Shot’ Variety Stage Eng. Plays 🌐 You’re not the whole sketch. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Aug. 4/8: Perth gals are regular sketches. | |
| ‘If a Party Meet a Party’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 100: That love thing is a funny sketch. | |
| Wise-crack Dict. 9/2: He’s a sketch – He’s comical. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | This Gutter Life 126: Cora – but you! – what a sketch! | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 143: She looked a bit of a sketch I can tell you, with her hair hanging down and her old man’s coat on over her nightgown. | |
| Honey Seems Bitter 74: A fine sketch of a man you are. | |
| ‘A Man of Good Will’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 133: He was a sketch of a man to look at, he walked pigeon-toed. | |
| et al. CUSS 197: Sketch A quick or witty person. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Butcher Boy 174: I think I must have looked a bit of a sketch with the stew and all on my good jacket and the smell of brock. | |
| Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Sketch (n): usually a girl who looks a state. |
(b) a couple.
| Shorty McCabe on the Job 105: You push in and interview Mother, while I stick around out here and wait for the other half of the sketch. |
(c) (US campus, also sketchball, sketcher, sketchmaster) one who looks or feels confused, unstable, odd.
| Sl. U. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 7: sketch – someone who is hard to figure out. | |
| Da Bomb 🌐 25: Sketcher: A nervous person. | |
| Campus Sl. Nov. 11: sketchmaster – unusual person due to his or her lack of social know-how. [...]. | |
| Campus Sl. Nov. 6: sketchball – person of questionable character. |
3. the rules, the situation.
| Gunner Depew 236-8: [A]n officer read the Martial Law of Germany to us [...] I guess it was a German law that this little sketch had to be read to prisoners. | |
| Layer Cake 84: You know the sketch, ring very early or very late. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Young Team 6: Same sketch again [...] n nae fuckin aboot. |
4. (US drugs) methamphetamine.
| ONDCP Street Terms 19: Sketch — Methamphetamine. |
5. (Scot.) a look at, a view of.
| Glue 77: Ah’m tryin tae git a wee sketch at her tits. | |
| Ringer [ebook] n.p.: I take a sketch at the legs , black stockings all the way up to what looks like sussie-tops peeking beneath the wee short skirt. | |
| Dead Man’s Trousers [39]: [A]h didnae git a sketch ay the cunt tae tipple how gone he was. |
In compounds
(US campus) a male homosexual.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 4: sketchball – gay male. |
In phrases
1. an attractive person, usu. a young woman.
| Boss 28: I hears the sketch—the girl, I mean—sing out, ‘Kill him!’. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 47: She’s a hot sketch. | |
| Courier (Waterloo, IA) 26 Dec. 6/4: I gathered that you liked a woman to be a hot sketch and a snappy bird. | |
| (con. 1920s) Big Money in USA (1966) 1072: ‘Goodnight, hot sketch,’ Si said. |
2. an amusing person or thing.
| ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 158: I runs into a hot sketch down in one o’ them dry burgs. | |
| Indianapolis News (IN) 15 Nov. 22/3: The [...] festival given by the Indianapolis Athletic [...] Club [...] promises tro be a hot sketch. | |
| Classics in Sl. 52: A guy in love is a hot sketch, hey? | |
| ‘First Offense’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 16: The guy was better than a sideshow at Coney [...] And the dumpy broad with him was a hot sketch. | |
| et al. CUSS 140: Hot sketch A quick or witty person. |
3. an eccentric person.
| Capitol Times (Madison, WI) 16 May 9/3: ‘Say, I’m a hot sketch now, ain’t I?’. | |
| ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 333: hot sketch—an odd or queer looking person; anything queer. |
(Irish) to keep a lookout.
| The Joy (2015) [ebook] Jemser [...] would keep sketch out the back. |