skill
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Skill \Skill\, v. i.
1. To be knowing; to have understanding; to be dexterous in
performance. [Obs.]
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I can not skill of these thy ways. --Herbert.
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2. To make a difference; to signify; to matter; -- used
impersonally. --Spenser.
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What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold
About thy neck do drown thee? --Herbert.
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It skills not talking of it. --Sir W.
Scott.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Skill \Skill\, n. [Icel. skil a distinction, discernment; akin
to skilja to separate, divide, distinguish, Sw. skilja,.
skille to separate, skiel reason, right, justice, Sw.
sk[aum]l reason, Lith. skelli to cleave. Cf. {Shell},
{Shoal}, a multitude.]
1. Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause. [Obs.]
--Shak. "As it was skill and right." --Chaucer.
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For great skill is, he prove that he wrought. [For
with good reason he should test what he created.]
--Chaucer.
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2. Knowledge; understanding. [Obsoles.]
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That by his fellowship he color might
Both his estate and love from skill of any wight.
--Spenser.
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Nor want we skill or art. --Milton.
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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.
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Phocion, . . . by his great wisdom and skill at
negotiations, diverted Alexander from the conquest
of Athens. --Swift.
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Where patience her sweet skill imparts. --Keble.
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4. Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.
[Obs.]
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Richard . . . by a thousand princely skills,
gathering so much corn as if he meant not to return.
--Fuller.
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5. Any particular art. [Obs.]
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Learned in one skill, and in another kind of
learning unskillful. --Hooker.
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Syn: Dexterity; adroitness; expertness; art; aptitude;
ability.
Usage: {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.
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from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
SKILL, contracts. The art of doing a thing as it ought to be done.
2. Every person who purports to have skill in la business, and
undertakes for hire to perform it, is bound to do it with ordinary skill,
and is responsible civilly in damages for the want of it; 11 M. & W. 483;
and sometimes he is responsible criminally. Vide Mala Praxis; 2 Russ. on Cr.
288,
3. The degree of skill and diligence required, rises in proportion to
the value of the article, and the delicacy of the operation: more skill is
required, for example, to repair a very delicate mathematical instrument,
than upon a common instrument. Jones' Bailm. 91; 2 Kent, Com. 458, 463; 1
Bell's Com. 459; 2 Ld. Raym. 909, 918; Domat, liv. 1, t. 4, Sec. 8, n. 1;
Poth. Louage, n. 425; Pardess. n. 528; Ayl. Pand. B. 4, t. 7, p. 466; Ersk.
Inst. B. 3, t. 3, Sec. 16; 1 Rolle, Ab. 10; Story's Bailm. Sec. 431, et
seq.; 2 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 144.
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
104 Moby Thesaurus words for "skill":
Mnemosyne, ability, accomplishment, adeptness, adroitness,
affect memory, anterograde memory, aptitude, art, artistry,
ascendancy, atavism, capability, cleverness, collective memory,
command, computer memory, craft, cunning, deanship, deftness,
dexterity, 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, readiness, recollection, remembrance, right-of-way,
science, screen memory, seniority, skillfulness, sleight, souvenir,
strength, success, superiority, talent, tape memory, technic,
technical know-how, technical knowledge, technical skill, technics,
technique, technology, transcendence, transcendency,
verbal response, virtuosity, visual memory
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