skip

present singular third person skips · participle present skipping · participle past skipped · past skipped · first person past singular skipped · archaic present second person singular skippest · past second person singular skipped · archaic past second person singular skippedst · present singular third person skips · archaic present singular third person skippeth · past singular third person skipped · past plural skipped · past subjunctive skipped · participle present skipping · participle past skipped

1. intransitiveTo move by hopping on alternate feet.

   She will skip from one end of the sidewalk to the other.

2. intransitiveTo leap about lightly.

   So she drew her mother away skipping, dancing, and frisking fantastically.

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, / Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

   The hosts maintained their discipline and shape, even threatening to grab a second goal on the break - left-back Dan Harding made a scintillating run, skipping past a few challenges before prodding a right-footed shot that did not match his build-up.

   2011 January 29, Ian Hughes, “Southampton 1 - 2 Man Utd”, in BBC

3. intransitiveTo skim, ricochet or bounce over a surface.

   The rock will skip across the pond.

   1 more example

   After Essien's poor attempt flew into the stands, Rodrigo Moreno - Bolton's on-loan winger from Benfica who was making his full Premier League debut - nearly exposed the Blues with a lovely ball for Johan Elmander, but it just skipped away from his team-mate's toes.

   2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC

4. transitiveTo throw (something), making it skim, ricochet, or bounce over a surface.

   I bet I can skip this rock to the other side of the pond.

5. transitiveTo disregard, miss or omit part of a continuation (some item or stage).

   My heart will skip a beat.

   3 more examples

   He skipped the second question and moved on.

   I will read most of the book, but skip the first chapter because the video covered it.

   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth But they who have not this doubt, and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory, may skip these two Chapters, if they please, and proceed to the following

6. informaltransitiveNot to attend (some event, especially a class or a meeting).

   Yeah, I really should go to the quarterly meeting but I think I'm going to skip it.

   Synonyms: play hooky

7. informaltransitiveTo leave, especially in a sudden and covert manner.

   to skip the country

   2 more examples

   a customer who skipped town without paying her hotel bill

   I see ya' little speed boat head up our coast She really want to skip town Get back off me, beast off me Get back you flea-infested mongrel

   1998, Baha Men, Who Let the Dogs Out?

8. To leap lightly over.

   to skip the rope

9. To jump rope.

   The girls were skipping in the playground.

10. To cause the stylus to jump back to the previous loop of the record's groove, continuously repeating that part of the sound, as a result of excessive scratching or wear. (of a phonograph record)
11. crochetbusinessTo pass by a stitch as if it were not there, continuing with the next stitch.
12. mediaTo have insufficient ink transfer.

    Antonyms: stack

plural skips

1. A leaping or jumping movement; the action of one who skips.
2. The act of passing over an interval from one thing to another; an omission of a part.
   1. video gamesA trick allowing the player to proceed to a later section of the game without playing through a section that was intended to be mandatory.
3. entertainmentA passage from one sound to another by more than a degree at once.
4. A person who attempts to disappear so as not to be found.

   Tracking down debtors is a big part of a skip tracer's job. That's the case because deadbeats who haven't paid their bills and have disappeared are the most common type of skips.

   2012, Susan Nash, Skip Tracing Basics and Beyond, page 19

5. broadcastingskywave propagation
6. informalA song, typically one on an album, that is not worth listening to.

plural skips

1. CommonwealthIrelandUKA large container for waste, designed to be lifted onto the back of a truck to remove it along with its contents, or to be picked up by hydraulic arms so that its contents can be dumped into the truck.

   Synonyms: dumpster

2. businessA transportation container in a mine, usually for ore or mullock.

   Beside it was a great engine which worked a continuous steel rope on which the skips were fastened which drew up the débris by successive stages from the bottom of the shaft.

   1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed

3. A skip car.
4. ScotlandUKdialectalA skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket.

   In a panic he pushed the prostesting Catweazle inside an empty clothes skip and sat down on the lid just as his father and Sam came in.

   1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 127

5. A wheeled basket chiefly used in textile factories.
6. sugar manufactureA charge of syrup in the pans.
7. A beehive made of woven straw, wicker, etc.

   Synonyms: skep

present singular third person skips · participle present skipping · participle past skipped · past skipped

1. transitiveTo place (an item) in a skip (large container for waste).

plural skips

1. abbreviationinformalShort for skipper, especially as (nautical) the master of a ship; (sports) a team captain; (UK, law enforcement) a detective sergeant; or any other person with similar moderate authority.
2. ball gamesThe player who calls the shots and traditionally throws the last two rocks.
3. bowlsThe captain of a bowls team, who directs the team's tactics and rolls the side's last wood, so as to be able to retrieve a difficult situation if necessary.
4. informalscoutingThe scoutmaster of a troop of scouts (youth organization).

present singular third person skips · participle present skipping · participle past skipped · past skipped

1. sports such as curlingTo act as skipper, or captain, of a team.

plural skips · alternative skippy

1. AustraliaslangAn Australian of Anglo-Celtic descent.

   2001, Effie (character played by Mary Coustas), Effie: Just Quietly (TV series), Episode: Nearest and Dearest, Effie: How did you find the second, the defacto, and what nationality is she? Barber: She is Australian. Effie: Is she? Gone for a skip. You little radical you.

plural skips

1. historicalTrinity College; Dublin; Trinity College; DublinA college servant.

   His wounded tutor, his many duns, the skip and bed-maker who waited upon him, the undergraduates of his own time and the years below him, whom he had patronised or scorned—how could he bear to look any of them in the face now?

   1849, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Flight after Defeat”, in The History of Pendennis

   2 more examples

   Behind the Counter stood a complaisant Spark, who I observ'd shew'd as much Breeding in the sale of a Penny-worth of Tobacco, and the change of a Shilling, as a Courtier's Footman when he meets his Brother Skip in the middle of Covent-Garden; and is so very dexterous in discharge of his Occupation, the he guesses from a Pound of Tobacco to an Ounce to the certainty of one Corn […]

   1703, Edward Ward, The London-spy Compleat, 5th edition, volume 1, part 7, published 1713, page 157

   He constitutes, probably, the identical exception which Sir Boyle Roche had in his mind's eye, when he broached his famous problem, that "a man cannot be in two places at once, barring he is a bird." The skip, or according to the Oxford etymology, the man-vulture, is not fit for his calling who cannot time his business so as to be present simultaneously at several places. He must be at Kinshan's on Carlisle Bridge, for Mr. Moriarty's half-pound of tea, at the very moment that Sir Looby, in the Botany Bay Square, requires his three eggs; and the Billy Sheridan of the day is singing out, like Stentor, from the tiles and skylights of a coctile edifice beside the library, for the "lazy rascal!"

   1842 October, Billy Sheridan, “Reminiscences of College Life”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, page 682

plural skips

1. slangA skip-level manager; the boss of one's boss.

   My skip is helpful when my team lead is being uptight.

   Synonyms: grandboss

1. A male given name from Old Norse.