They were employees at individual designers' studios, and their job was to resemble store-window dummies or the sketchy figures in fashion drawings.

Barely visible on the grass beneath the tree is a whimsical, sketchy figure of a woman holding an umbrella.

"The very early sketchy figures in the third quarter show it's beginning in a pretty strong fashion," Mr. Ortner said.

Although Mr. Perot has provided sketchy figures, his plan calls for $12 billion in new spending over the next four years.

On the walls hang smallish, roughly poetic watercolors in which sketchy figures appear upside down (Johnson).

The Kilpatricks in particular remain frustratingly sketchy figures, and the relationship between the two families that is supposed to be the springboard for much of what happens is never satisfactorily evoked.

According to sketchy official figures, about 3,500 army soldiers and Interior Ministry troops have died in Chechnya since December 1994, although most human rights organizations say the figure is far higher.

Q. Mary is a fairly sketchy figure in the Bible.

Joan Copeland, as Arthur's inexplicable mother, and Maryann Urbano, as his mystical lover, almost make these sketchy figures seem whole.

Marrity blinked at it himself-it was showing the same program he remembered, the sketchy black-and-white figures who moved only in precisely repetitive gestures.