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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



... hundred years before in front of Moultrie, which was hard by and frowning still at her ancient enemies of the ocean. They halted and waited for word of command to belch their consuming lightnings out upon the foe. On the land, engineering skill was satisfied and the deadly exposure for details for labor was ended; the time for retaliation had arrived when the defiant shots of the rebel batteries would be answered; the batteries were unmasked; the cordon of fire was ...
— The Black Phalanx - African American soldiers in the War of Independence, the - War of 1812, and the Civil War • Joseph T. Wilson
... zeal. I know that you are a loving and intelligent barrier, placed between the prince and many guilty interests; and it is because I have heard of that zeal, of your skill in circumventing this young Indian, and, above all, of the motives of your blind devotion, that I have wished to inform you of everything. You are the fanatical worshipper of him you serve. That is well; man should be the obedient slave of the god ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... charming than the miniature set in crystals which Mastachelli bore among the wedding gifts; and the grace of him could not be matched, for his power of winning, when he had set his heart to the task. In whatever deed of skill and daring his prowess went before his knights and nobles—as, from childhood up, in whatever teaching from books or men, he had distanced all his comrades—with that strange facility and fascination with which the Genius ...
— The Royal Pawn of Venice - A Romance of Cyprus • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... quick skill of woman, rolled down the stocking on her right leg. Modestly daring, she stretched out her foot and slightly lifted her dress. On the outer side of the tapering limb was an ugly bruise, scratched deeply ...
— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy
... disadvantage. The Charybdis in the Close drove him helpless into the whirlpool of the Heavitree Scylla. He had no longer an escape from the perils of the latter shore. He had been so mauled by the opposite waves, that he had neither spirit nor skill left to him to keep in the middle track. He was almost daily at Heavitree, and did not attempt to conceal from himself the approach of ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope


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