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Skill   /skɪl/   Listen
noun
Skill  n.  
1.
Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause. (Obs.) "As it was skill and right." "For great skill is, he prove that he wrought." (For with good reason he should test what he created.)
2.
Knowledge; understanding. (Obsoles.) "That by his fellowship he color might Both his estate and love from skill of any wight." "Nor want we skill or art."
3.
The familiar knowledge of any art or science, united with readiness and dexterity in execution or performance, or in the application of the art or science to practical purposes; power to discern and execute; ability to perceive and perform; expertness; aptitude; as, the skill of a mathematician, physician, surgeon, mechanic, etc. "Phocion,... by his great wisdom and skill at negotiations, diverted Alexander from the conquest of Athens." "Where patience her sweet skill imparts."
4.
Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address. (Obs.) "Richard... by a thousand princely skills, gathering so much corn as if he meant not to return."
5.
Any particular art. (Obs.) "Learned in one skill, and in another kind of learning unskillful."
Synonyms: Dexterity; adroitness; expertness; art; aptitude; ability. Skill, Dexterity, Adroitness. Skill is more intelligent, denoting familiar knowledge united to readiness of performance. Dexterity, when applied to the body, is more mechanical, and refers to habitual ease of execution. Adroitness involves the same image with dexterity, and differs from it as implaying a general facility of movement (especially in avoidance of danger or in escaping from a difficalty). The same distinctions apply to the figurative sense of the words. A man is skillful in any employment when he understands both its theory and its practice. He is dexterous when he maneuvers with great lightness. He is adroit in the use od quick, sudden, and well-directed movements of the body or the mind, so as to effect the object he has in view.


verb
Skill  v. t.  To know; to understand. (Obs.) "To skill the arts of expressing our mind."


Skill  v. i.  
1.
To be knowing; to have understanding; to be dexterous in performance. (Obs.) "I can not skill of these thy ways."
2.
To make a difference; to signify; to matter; used impersonally. "What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold About thy neck do drown thee?" "It skills not talking of it."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Skill" Quotes from Famous Books



... weighty matter, Ptolemy showed the wisdom and judgment which had already gained him his high character. Though his military rank and skill were equal to those of any one of Alexander's generals, and his claim by birth perhaps equal to that of Arridaeous, he was not one of those who aimed at the throne; nor did he even aim at the second place, but left to Perdiccas ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12) • S. Rappoport
... unrivalled as an instrument of fascination and conquest; and on seeing how easily he ingratiated himself with the people in that drawing-room, one could understand his lightning-like successes in the political world. He had manoeuvered with rare skill in the matter of his son's marriage, affecting such exaggerated delicacy of feeling as to set himself against the lovers, and declare that he would never consent to their union, as he had no desire to be ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... tree in nature to which the enlivening beams of the sun are obnoxious. It requires to be sheltered from their ardour; and the mode of combining this protection with the principles of fertility, forms a very essential part of the skill which its cultivation demands. The cacao tree is mingled with other trees, which guard it from the rays of the sun, without depriving it of the benefit of their heat. The Erythrina and the banana are employed for this purpose. The latter, ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds
... conscientiously making acquaintance with the achievements of old-time art, modern artists were trying to practise their skill on him; he had already sat to Cephas Giovanni Thompson, and he was now asked to contribute his head to the studio of a certain Miss Lander, late of Salem, Massachusetts, now settled, as she intended, permanently in Rome. "When I dream of home," she told him, ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne
... a child, no bigger than some of the young-readers of "The Nursery," he showed a great taste for drawing. He had an especial fondness for drawing animals. His father encouraged him by giving him pictures to copy; and soon his skill in copying became so great that his father took him into the fields, and taught him to ...
— The Nursery, Volume 17, No. 100, April, 1875 • Various


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