English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 99

SIN.

Synonyms:

crime, fault, misdeed, vice, criminality, guilt, offense, viciousness, delinquency, ill-doing, transgression, wickedness, depravity, immorality, unG.o.dliness, wrong, evil, iniquity, unrighteousness, wrong-doing.

_Sin_ is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether of commission or omission. "All _unrighteousness_ is _sin_," _1 John_ v, 17. _Transgression_, as its etymology indicates, is the stepping over a specific enactment, whether of G.o.d or man, ordinarily by overt act, but in the broadest sense, in volition or desire. _Sin_ may be either act or state; _transgression_ is always an act, mental or physical. _Crime_ is often used for a flagrant violation of right, but in the technical sense denotes specific violation of human law. _Guilt_ is desert of and exposure to punishment because of _sin_. _Depravity_ denotes not any action, but a perverted moral condition from which any act of _sin_ may proceed. _Sin_ in the generic sense, as denoting a state of heart, is synonymous with _depravity_; in the specific sense, as in the expression a _sin_, the term may be synonymous with _transgression_, _crime_, _offense_, _misdeed_, etc., or may denote some moral activity that could not be characterized by terms so positive. _Immorality_ denotes outward violation of the moral law. _Sin_ is thus the broadest word, and _immorality_ next in scope; all _crimes_, properly so called, and all _immoralities_, are _sins_; but there may be _sin_, as ingrat.i.tude, which is neither _crime_, _transgression_, nor _immorality_; and there may be _immorality_ which is not _crime_, as falsehood. Compare CRIMINAL.

Antonyms:

blamelessness, goodness, integrity, rect.i.tude, sinlessness, excellence, holiness, morality, right, uprightness, G.o.dliness, innocence, purity, righteousness, virtue.

Compare synonyms for VIRTUE.

SING.

Synonyms:

carol, chant, chirp, chirrup, hum, warble.

To _sing_ is primarily and ordinarily to utter a succession of articulate musical sounds with the human voice. The word has come to include any succession of musical sounds; we say the bird or the rivulet _sings_; we speak of "the _singing_ quality" of an instrument, and by still wider extension of meaning we say the teakettle or the cricket _sings_. To _chant_ is to _sing_ in solemn and somewhat uniform cadence; _chant_ is ordinarily applied to non-metrical religious compositions. To _carol_ is to _sing_ joyously, and to _warble_ (kindred with _whirl_) is to _sing_ with trills or quavers, usually also with the idea of joy.

_Carol_ and _warble_ are especially applied to the _singing_ of birds.

To _chirp_ is to utter a brief musical sound, perhaps often repeated in the same key, as by certain small birds, insects, etc. To _chirrup_ is to utter a somewhat similar sound; the word is often used of a brief, sharp sound uttered as a signal to animate or rouse a horse or other animal. To _hum_ is to utter murmuring sounds with somewhat monotonous musical cadence, usually with closed lips; we speak also of the _hum_ of machinery, etc.

SKEPTIC.

Synonyms:

agnostic, deist, doubter, infidel, unbeliever.

atheist, disbeliever, freethinker,

The _skeptic_ doubts divine revelation; the _disbeliever_ and the _unbeliever_ reject it, the _disbeliever_ with more of intellectual dissent, the _unbeliever_ (in the common acceptation) with indifference or with opposition of heart as well as of intellect. _Infidel_ is an opprobrious term that might once almost have been said to be geographical in its range. The Crusaders called all Mohammedans _infidels_, and were so called by them in return; the word is commonly applied to any decided opponent of an accepted religion. The _atheist_ denies that there is a G.o.d; the _deist_ admits the existence of G.o.d, but denies that the Christian Scriptures are a revelation from him; the _agnostic_ denies either that we do know or that we can know whether there is a G.o.d.

Antonyms:

believer, Christian.

SKETCH.

Synonyms:

brief, draft, outline, plan, design, drawing, picture, skeleton.

A _sketch_ is a rough, suggestive presentation of anything, whether graphic or literary, commonly intended to be preliminary to a more complete or extended treatment. An _outline_ gives only the bounding or determining lines of a figure or a scene; a _sketch_ may give not only lines, but shading and color, but is hasty and incomplete. The lines of a _sketch_ are seldom so full and continuous as those of an _outline_, being, like the shading or color, little more than indications or suggestions according to which a finished _picture_ may be made; the artist's first representation of a sunset, the hues of which change so rapidly, must of necessity be a _sketch_. _Draft_ and _plan_ apply especially to mechanical drawing, of which _outline_, _sketch_, and _drawing_ are also used; a _plan_ is strictly a view from above, as of a building or machine, giving the lines of a horizontal section, originally at the level of the ground, now in a wider sense at any height; as, a _plan_ of the cellar; a _plan_ of the attic. A mechanical _drawing_ is always understood to be in full detail; a _draft_ is an incomplete or unfinished _drawing_; a _design_ is such a preliminary _sketch_ as indicates the object to be accomplished or the result to be attained, and is understood to be original. One may make a _drawing_ of any well-known mechanism, or a _drawing_ from another man's _design_; but if he says, "The _design_ is mine," he claims it as his own invention or composition. In written composition an _outline_ gives simply the main divisions, and in the case of a sermon is often called a _skeleton_; a somewhat fuller suggestion of ill.u.s.tration, treatment, and style is given in a _sketch_. A lawyer's _brief_ is a succinct statement of the main facts involved in a case, and of the main heads of his argument on points of law, with reference to authorities cited; the _brief_ has none of the vagueness of a _sketch_, being sufficiently exact and complete to form, on occasion, the basis for the decision of the court without oral argument, when the case is said to be "submitted on _brief_." Compare DESIGN.

SKILFUL.

Synonyms:

accomplished, apt, dexterous, happy, proficient, adept, clever, expert, ingenious, skilled, adroit, deft, handy, practised, trained.

_Skilful_ signifies possessing and using readily practical knowledge and ability, having alert and well-trained faculties with reference to a given work. One is _adept_ in that for which he has a natural gift improved by practise; he is _expert_ in that of which training, experience, and study have given him a thorough mastery; he is _dexterous_ in that which he can do effectively, with or without training, especially in work of the hand or bodily activities. In the case of the noun, "an expert" denotes one who is "experienced" in the fullest sense, a master of his branch of knowledge. A _skilled_ workman is one who has thoroughly learned his trade, though he may be naturally quite dull; a _skilful_ workman has some natural brightness, ability, and power of adaptation, in addition to his acquired knowledge and dexterity. Compare CLEVER; DEXTERITY; POWER.

Antonyms:

awkward, clumsy, inexpert, shiftless, unskilled, untrained.

bungling, helpless, maladroit, unhandy, untaught,

Prepositions:

Skilful _at_ or _in_ a work, _with_ a pen or tool of any kind.

SLANDER.

Synonyms:

asperse, decry, disparage, revile, backbite, defame, libel, traduce, calumniate, depreciate, malign, vilify.

To _slander_ a person is to utter a false and injurious report concerning him; to _defame_ is specifically and directly to attack one's reputation; to _defame_ by spoken words is to _slander_, by written words, to _libel_. To _asperse_ is, as it were, to bespatter with injurious charges; to _malign_ is to circulate studied and malicious attacks upon character; to _traduce_ is to exhibit one's real or a.s.sumed traits in an odious light; to _revile_ or _vilify_ is to attack with vile abuse. To _disparage_ is to represent one's admitted good traits or acts as less praiseworthy than they would naturally be thought to be, as for instance, by ascribing a man's benevolence to a desire for popularity or display. To _libel_ or _slander_ is to make an a.s.sault upon character and repute that comes within the scope of law; the _slander_ is uttered, the _libel_ written, printed, or pictured. To _backbite_ is to speak something secretly to one's injury; to _calumniate_ is to invent as well as utter the injurious charge. One may "abuse," "a.s.sail," or _vilify_ another to his face; he _asperses_, _calumniates_, _slanders_, or _traduces_ him behind his back.

Antonyms:

defend, eulogize, extol, laud, praise, vindicate.

SLANG.