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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>SHELTER.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>cover,</td><td>guard,</td><td>protect,</td><td>shield,</td></tr> <tr><td>defend,</td><td>harbor,</td><td>screen,</td><td>ward.</td></tr> </table> Anything is covered over which something is completely extended; a vessel is covered with a lid; the head is covered with a hat. That which covers may also defend or protect; thus, troops interposed between some portion of their own army and the enemy are often called a covering party. To shelter is to cover so as to protect from injury or annoyance; as, the roof shelters from the storm; woods shelter from the heat. To defend (L. defendere, to strike away) implies the actual, protect (L. protegere, to cover before) implies the possible use of force or resisting power; guard implies sustained vigilance with readiness for conflict; we defend a person or thing against actual attack; we guard or protect against possible assault or injury. A powerful person may protect one who is weak by simply declaring himself his friend; he defends him by some form of active championship. An inanimate object may protect, as a garment from cold; defend is used but rarely, and by somewhat violent metaphor, in such connection. Protect is more complete than guard or defend; an object may be faithfully guarded or bravely defended in vain, but that which is protected is secure. To shield is to interpose something over or before that which is assailed, so as to save from harm, and has a comparatively passive sense; one may guard another by standing armed at his side, defend him by fighting for him, or shield him from a missile or a blow by interposing his own person. Harbor is generally used in an unfavorable sense; confederates or sympathizers harbor a criminal; a person harbors evil thoughts or designs. See CHERISH. Compare synonyms for HIDE; DEFENSE. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>betray,</td><td>cast out,</td><td>expel,</td><td>expose,</td><td>give up,</td><td>refuse,</td><td>reject,</td><td>surrender.</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Shelter under a roof from the storm; in the fortress, behind or within the walls, from attack. <hr /> <h3>SIGN.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>emblem,</td><td>mark,</td><td>presage,</td><td>symbol,</td><td>token,</td></tr> <tr><td>indication,</td><td>note,</td><td>prognostic,</td><td>symptom,</td><td>type.</td></tr> <tr><td>manifestation,</td><td>omen,</td><td colspan="3">signal,</td></tr> </table> A sign (L. signum) is any distinctive mark by which a thing may be recognized or its presence known, and may be intentional or accidental, natural or artificial, suggestive, descriptive, or wholly arbitrary; thus, a blush may be a sign of shame; the footprint of an animal is a sign that it has passed; the sign of a business house now usually declares what is done or kept within, but formerly might be an object having no connection with the business, as "the sign of the trout;" the letters of the alphabet are signs of certain sounds. While a sign may be involuntary, and even unconscious, a signal is always voluntary, and is usually concerted; a ship may show signs of distress to the casual observer, but signals of distress are a distinct appeal for aid. A symptom is a vital phenomenon resulting from a diseased condition; in medical language a sign is an indication of any physical condition, whether morbid or healthy; thus, a hot skin and rapid pulse are symptoms of pneumonia; dulness of some portion of the lungs under percussion is one of the physical signs. Compare AUGUR; CHARACTERISTIC; EMBLEM. <hr /> <h3>SIN.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>crime,</td><td>fault,</td><td>misdeed,</td><td>vice,</td></tr> <tr><td>criminality,</td><td>guilt,</td><td>offense,</td><td>viciousness,</td></tr> <tr><td>delinquency,</td><td>ill-doing,</td><td>transgression,</td><td>wickedness,</td></tr> <tr><td>depravity,</td><td>immorality,</td><td>ungodliness,</td><td>wrong,</td></tr> <tr><td>evil,</td><td>iniquity,</td><td>unrighteousness,</td><td>wrong-doing.</td></tr> </table> 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 God 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 ingratitude, which is neither crime, transgression, nor immorality; and there may be immorality which is not crime, as falsehood. Compare CRIMINAL. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>blamelessness,</td><td>goodness,</td><td>integrity,</td><td>rectitude,</td><td>sinlessness,</td></tr> <tr><td>excellence,</td><td>holiness,</td><td>morality,</td><td>right,</td><td>uprightness,</td></tr> <tr><td>godliness,</td><td>innocence,</td><td>purity,</td><td>righteousness,</td><td>virtue.</td></tr> </table> Compare synonyms for VIRTUE. <hr /> <h3>SING.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>carol,</td><td>chant,</td><td>chirp,</td><td>chirrup,</td><td>hum,</td><td>warble.</td></tr> </table> 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. <hr /> <h3>SKEPTIC.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>agnostic,</td><td>deist,</td><td>doubter,</td><td rowspan="2">infidel,</td><td rowspan="2">unbeliever.</td></tr> <tr><td>atheist,</td><td>disbeliever,</td><td>freethinker,</td></tr> </table> 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 God; the deist admits the existence of God, 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 God. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>believer,</td><td>Christian.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>SKETCH.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>brief,</td><td>draft,</td><td>outline,</td><td>plan,</td></tr> <tr><td>design,</td><td>drawing,</td><td>picture,</td><td>skeleton.</td></tr> </table> 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 illustration, 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. <hr /> <h3>SKILFUL.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>accomplished,</td><td>apt,</td><td>dexterous,</td><td>happy,</td><td>proficient,</td></tr> <tr><td>adept,</td><td>clever,</td><td>expert,</td><td>ingenious,</td><td>skilled,</td></tr> <tr><td>adroit,</td><td>deft,</td><td>handy,</td><td>practised,</td><td>trained.</td></tr> </table> 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. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>awkward,</td><td>clumsy,</td><td>inexpert,</td><td>shiftless,</td><td>unskilled,</td><td rowspan="2">untrained.</td></tr> <tr><td>bungling,</td><td>helpless,</td><td>maladroit,</td><td>unhandy,</td><td>untaught,</td></tr> </table> <h4>Prepositions:</h4> Skilful at or in a work, with a pen or tool of any kind. <hr /> <h3>SLANDER.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>asperse,</td><td>decry,</td><td>disparage,</td><td>revile,</td></tr> <tr><td>backbite,</td><td>defame,</td><td>libel,</td><td>traduce,</td></tr> <tr><td>calumniate,</td><td>depreciate,</td><td>malign,</td><td>vilify.</td></tr> </table> 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 assumed 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 assault 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," "assail," or vilify another to his face; he asperses, calumniates, slanders, or traduces him behind his back. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>defend,</td><td>eulogize,</td><td>extol,</td><td>laud,</td><td>praise,</td><td>vindicate.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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