Search the Dictionary

To cover with skin, or as with skin; hence, to cover superficially. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place. Shak.

Not deeper than the skin; hence, superficial. Lowell.

tingly; to drive off; to remove. [R.] -- To slight over, to run over in haste; to perform superficially; to treat carelessly; as, to slight over a theme. "They will but slight it over." Bacon.

The quality or state of being slight; slenderness; feebleness; superficiality; also, formerly, negligence; indifference; disregard.

To talk superficially or ignorantly; to babble; to chatter. Of state affairs you can not smatter. Swift.

One who has only a slight, superficial knowledge; a sciolist.

A slight, superficial knowledge of something; sciolism. I had a great desire, not able to attain to a superficial skill in any, to have some smattering in all. Burton.

Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; appearing well at first view; plausible; as, specious reasoning; a specious argument. Misled for a moment by the specious names of religion, liberty, and property. Macaulay. In consequence of their greater command of specious expression. J.…

Of or pertaining to the superficies, or surface; superficial.

The surface; the exterior part, superficial area, or face of a thing.

film of all liquids and tends to bring the contained volume into a form having the least superficial area. The thickness of this film, amounting to less than a thousandth of a millimeter, is considered to equal the radius of the sphere of molecular action, that is, the greatest distance at which there is cohesion betw…

Slight; small; slender; flimsy; wanting substance or depth or force; superficial; inadequate; not sufficient for a covering; as, a thin disguise. My tale is done, for my wit is but thin. Chaucer.

Something shining and gaudy; something superficially shining and showy, or having a false luster, and more gay than valuable. O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward. Cowper.

That which serves to trap or adorn; ornaments; dress; superficial decorations. Trappings of life, for ornament, not use. Dryden. These but the trappings and the suits of woe. Shak.