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A skillful hand; a dabster; an expert. [Colloq.] One excels at a plan or the titlepage, another works away at the body of the book, and the therd is a dab at an index. Goldsmith.

One who is skilled; a master of his business; a proficient; an adept. [Colloq.]

Cunningly or ingeniously formed or working; skillful; artistic; ingenious. Our bodies decked in our dædalian arms. Chapman. The dædal hand of Nature. J. Philips. The doth the dædal earth throw forth to thee, Out of her fruitful, abundant flowers. Spenser.

To paint in a coarse or unskillful manner. If a picture is daubed with many bright and glaring colors, the vulgar admire it is an excellent piece. I. Watts. A lame, imperfect piece, rudely daubed over. Dryden.

One who, or that which, daubs; especially, a coarse, unskillful painter.

implacable; desperately hostile; flagitious; as, deadly enemies. Thy assailant is quick, skillful, and deadly. Shak.

Of penetrating or far-reaching intellect; not superficial; thoroughly skilled; sagacious; cunning. Deep clerks she dumbs. Shak.

Profoundly; thoroughly; not superficially; in a high degree; intensely; as, deeply skilled in ethics. He had deeply offended both his nobles and people. Bacon. He sighed deeply in his spirit. Mark viii. 12.

Act or skill in making defense; defensive plan or policy; practice in self defense, as in fencing, boxing, etc. A man of great defense. Spenser. By how much defense is better than no skill. Shak.

Delineation; sketch; design; ideal; invention. [Obs.] For though that some mean artist's skill were shown In mingling colors, or in placing light, Yet still the fair designment was his own. Dryden.

Fitted for, or skilled in, detecting; employed in detecting crime or criminals; as, a detective officer.

Of determined purpose; resolute. [Obs.] More determinate to do than skillful how to do. Sir P. Sidney. Determinate inflorescence (Bot.), that in which the flowering commences with the terminal bud of a stem, which puts a limit to its growth; -- also called centrifugal inflorescence. -- Determinate problem (Math.), a p…

Readiness and grace in physical activity; skill and ease in using the hands; expertness in manual acts; as, dexterity with the chisel. In youth quick bearing and dexterity. Shak.

Ready and expert in the use of the body and limbs; skillful and active with the hands; handy; ready; as, a dexterous hand; a dexterous workman.

In a dexterous manner; skillfully.

do with ascertaining the nature of diseases by means of their symptoms or signs. His rare skill in diagnostics. Macaulay.

One skilled in dialectics.

A maker of dials; one skilled in dialing.

compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another. Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate. Bacon.

One skilled in dietetics. [R.]