Definition of Skill

n.1.Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause.
For great skill is, he prove that he wrought.
- Chaucer.
2.Knowledge; understanding.
That by his fellowship he color might
Both his estate and love from skill of any wight.
- Spenser.
Nor want we skill or art.
- Milton.
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.
- Swift.
Where patience her sweet skill imparts.
- Keble.
4.Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.
Richard . . . by a thousand princely skills, gathering so much corn as if he meant not to return.
- Fuller.
5.Any particular art.
Learned in one skill, and in another kind of learning unskillful.
- Hooker.
v. t.1.To know; to understand.
To skill the arts of expressing our mind.
- Barrow.
v. i.1.To be knowing; to have understanding; to be dexterous in performance.
I can not skill of these thy ways.
- Herbert.
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?
- Herbert.
It skills not talking of it.
- Sir W. Scott.


Related Words

Mnemosyne, accomplishment, adeptness, affect memory, anterograde memory, aptitude, art, artistry, ascendancy, atavism, capability, collective memory, command, computer memory, craft, deanship, dexterousness, disk memory, drum memory, ease, emotional response, engram, excellence, experience, expertise, expertism, expertness, facility, faculty, favor, finesse, forte, gift, greatness, handiness, incomparability, information storage, ingenuity, inimitability, kinesthetic memory, knack, know-how, lead, majority, mastership, mastery, mechanics, mechanism, memory, memory bank, memory circuit, memory trace, method, mind, mneme, one-upmanship, precedence, predominance, predomination, preeminence, preponderance, prepotence, prepotency, prerogative, prestige, priority, privilege, proficiency, prowess, quickness, race memory, recollection, remembrance, right-of-way, science, screen memory, seniority, skillfulness, sleight, souvenir, strength, success, superiority, tape memory, technic, technical know-how, technical knowledge, technical skill, technics, technique, technology, transcendence, transcendency, verbal response, virtuosity, visual memory

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