Word Finder - skilful

definition

Possessing skill, skilled.

The Kei Islanders are skilful in carving and celebrated boat-builders.

He was a skilful chopper, and indulged in some flourishes and ornaments in his art.

After the conclusion of the peace of Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of Epidaurus, and after skilful manoeuvring surrounded the Argive army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he unaccountably concluded a four months' truce and withdrew his forces.

The romance is probably a somewhat late, and not very skilful, compilation.

But Charles, though a brave soldier and good military organizer, was neither a capable statesman nor a skilful general.

It was secured by the skilful diplomacy of Francis van Aarssens but on hard conditions.

He was a metrist of the artistic order, skilful, learned and unimpassioned.

St Benedict in the 6th century drew up such an arrangement, probably, though not certainly, on the basis of an older Roman division which, though not so skilful, is the one in general use.

Gradually there were added to these psalter choir-books additions in the form of antiphons, responses, collects or short prayers, for the use of those not skilful at improvisation and metrical compositions.

The fishermen and fisherwomen form a quite distinct class of the people; both sexes are noted for their bodily strength, and the men for their bold and skilful seamanship. Tunny and sardines are cured and exported in large quantities, oysters are also exported, and many other sea fish, such as hake, sea-bream, whiting, conger and various flat-fish are consumed in the country.

Skilful copies of Moorish metal-work may be purchased in the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' shops of.

They are skilful in the preparation of lap robes and rugs from the skins of the alpaca and vicuna.

Antony's heavy battleships endeavoured to close and crush the enemy with their artillery; Octavian's light and mobile craft made skilful use of skirmishing tactics.

The heroism of Wolfe would have been irrepressible, Clive would have proved himself "a heaven-born general," and Frederick the Great would have written his name in history as one of the most skilful strategists the world has known, whoever had held the seals of office in England.

For it was on the artistic rather than on the critical side of history that stress was almost universally laid in antiquity, and the thing that above all others was expected from the historian was not so much a scientific investigation and accurate exposition of the truth, as its skilful presentation in such a form as would charm and interest the reader.

We may conclude then that there was a Bronze Age in most countries; that it was the direct result of increasing intercommunication of races and the spread of commerce; and that the discovery of metals was due to information brought to Stone-Age man in Europe by races which were already skilful metallurgists.

Edwards, however, proved a skilful pilot, and his hold on the affection of the Welsh people enabled him to raise the college to a high level of efficiency.

They are industrious and skilful agriculturists, metal-workers and weavers.

Adrian restored the ancient aqueducts of Rome, and governed his little state with a firm and skilful hand.

The characteristics of the inhabitants of this region are well summed by Casati, who states that the Mege are considered the most skilful in elephant-hunting, the Azandeh in iron-work, the Mangbettu in wood-carving, the Abarambo in ivory-carving, and the Momfu in agriculture.

After some skilful manoeuvres, he surprised the enemy (September 11th, 1697) at Zenta, on the Theiss.

After once more passing several rivers in presence of the French army, and executing one of the most skilful and daring marches he had ever performed, the latter appeared before the entrenched camp at Turin, which place the French were now besieging with an army eighty thousand strong.

A skilful translation by Driver, with notes intended for ordinary students (1906) should also be mentioned.

Much of the success of draining depends on the skilful planning of these main drains, and in making them large enough to discharge the greatest flow of water to which they may be exposed.

In the circumstances to which it is applicable, and in the hands of skilful drainers, Elkington's Draining Implements.

It is to-day a "Monumento Nacional" of Spain, and has yielded I remarkable discoveries to the skilful excavations of Dr Schulten (1905-1910), who has traced the Celtiberian town, the lines of Scipio and several other Roman camps dating from the Numantine Wars.

The Malagasy are skilful in metal-working; with a few rude-looking tools they manufacture silver chains of great fineness, and filagree ornaments both of gold and silver.

Yet they were loyal to their Spanish sovereigns, and no part of the country offered a more determined or more skilful resistance to Napoleon.

As a resourceful political leader, and an adroit, ready, skilful tactician in debate, he has had few equals in American history.

This method, on which he laid great stress, and for the facilitation of which he invented a binocular glass, and devised some skilful mechanical contrivances, was offered by him in 1616 to the Spanish government, and afterwards to that of Tuscany, but in each case unsuccessfully; and the close of his life was occupied with prolonged but fruitless negotiations on the same subject with the states-general of Holland.

Weed, a skilful American machinist, who, after some years of strenuous effort, succeeded in devising and perfecting special rollers and dies, by the use of which foundation was produced with a midrib so thin as to compare favourably with natural comb built by the bees.

He owed the signal successes of his reign partly to his skilful choice of advisers and administrators, to his chancellors Jean and Guillaume de Dormans and Pierre d'Orgemont, to Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris, Bureau de la Riviere and others; partly to a singular coolness and subtlety in the exercise of a not over-scrupulous diplomacy, which made him a dangerous enemy.

The natives are skilful with their lands, and though they never cultivate cereals, exercise some care and knowledge over the coco-nut and tobacco, and have had much success with the foreign fruits and vegetables introduced by the missionaries.

All that the Dutch asked was directly or indirectly granted, and Maurice felt obliged to give a reluctant and somewhat sullen assent to the favourable conditions obtained by the firm and skilful diplomacy of the advocate.

They were still hunters, but had domesticated animals; they were fairly skilful metallurgists, casting bronze in moulds of stone and clay; they were also agriculturists, cultivating beans, the vine, wheat and flax.

Alberti came to Rimini, made his design, saw the work begun and then left it to be carried out by very skilful artists, on whom he impressed the necessity of faithfully preserving its general character so as " not to spoil that music."

In the 16th and 17th chapters of the Differential Equations we find, for instance, a lucid account of the general symbolic method, the bold and skilful employment of which led to Boole's chief discoveries, and of a general method in analysis, originally described in his famous memoir printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1844.

Very skilful accommodation was needful, if the limitation of sloths to South America, and of the Ornithorhynchus to Australia, was to be reconciled with the literal interpretation of the history of the Deluge; and, with the establishment of the existence of distinct provinces of distribution, any serious belief in the peopling of the world by migration from Mount Ararat came to an end.

They were, moreover, a race skilful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice.

They are skilful agriculturists and artisans, especially in textile fabrics and the manufacture of arms. Though native rule is tyrannical and arbitrary, especially in the principalities of Badung and Tabanan, trade and industry could not flourish if insecurity of persons and property existed to any great extent.

From this date till the peace of 1763 he served in the Channel in various more or less futile expeditions against the coast of France, with a steady increase of reputation as a firm and skilful officer.

The lower order contains the handsome portal with a semicircular pediment, while four of the remaining bays are filled with quaint scenes in surprisingly skilful perspective.

It must suffice to say that the skilful intervention of Cambaceres helped very materially to ensure to Napoleon the consulship for life (August 1, 1802); but the second consul is known to have disapproved of some of the events which followed, notably the execution of the duc d'Enghien, the rupture with England, and the proclamation of the Empire (May 19, 1804).

Skilful refunding postponed the day of evil, but cash on hand was too often a temptation to plunder.

Hitherto, according to all evidence, she had shown herself on all occasions, as on all subsequent occasions she indisputably showed herself, the most fearless, the most keen-sighted, the most ready-witted, the most high-gifted and high-spirited of women; gallant and generous, skilful and practical, never to be cowed by fortune, never to be cajoled by craft; neither more unselfish in her ends nor more unscrupulous in her practice than might have been expected from her training and her creed.

One of the immediate results of this triumph of his policy was the increase of Oldenbarneveldt's influence and authority in the government of the Republic. But though Maurice and his other opponents had reluctantly yielded to the advocate's skilful diplomacy and persuasive arguments, a soreness remained between the statesman and the stadholder which was destined never to be healed.

But the invaluable and rather delicate art of tempering the hardened steel by a very careful and gentle reheating, which removes its extreme brittleness though leaving most of ifs precious hardness, needs such skilful handling that it can hardly have become known until very long after the art of hot-forging.

The former of these ways is followed by the very skilful and intelligent blowers in Sweden, who, with the temperature and all other conditions well under control, and with their minds set on the quality rather than on the quantity of their product, can thus make steel of any desired carbon-content from o io to 1.25%.

The Ashanti are skilful in several species of manufacture, particularly in weaving cotton.

In the Apology, after contrasting the judicial treatment of Christians with that of other accused persons, he refutes the accusations brought against the Christians of atheism, eating human flesh and licentiousness, and in doing so takes occasion to make a vigorous and skilful attack on pagan polytheism and mythology.