skate1
- ice skate(def 1).
- roller skate.
- the blade of an ice skate.
- a skid on a lifeboat to facilitate launching from a listing ship.
- to glide or propel oneself over ice, the ground, etc., on skates.
- to glide or slide smoothly along.
- Slang. to shirk one's duty; loaf.
- (of the tone arm on a record player) to swing toward the spindle while a record is playing.
- to slide (a flat) across the floor of a stage.
- get/put one's skates on, British Informal. to make haste.
- skate on thin ice, to be or place oneself in a risky or delicate situation: Taking a public stand on the question would be skating on thin ice.
Origin of skate1
skate2
- any of several rays of the genus Raja, usually having a pointed snout, as R. binoculata (big skate), inhabiting waters along the Pacific coast of the U.S., growing to a length of 8 feet (2.4 meters).
Origin of skate2
skate3
- a person; fellow: He's a good skate.
- a contemptible person.
- an inferior, decrepit horse; nag.
Origin of skate3
Examples from the Web for skate
Contemporary Examples
Yeah, he wanted to skate and had never skated before, so I taught him when he was 58.
Putin’s Hockey Pal Tells All: Slava Fetisov on ‘Red Army,’ Soviet Nostalgia, and What Drives PutinMarlow Stern
October 9, 2014
We'd skate and walk over the Mile Road and skate and walk over the railroad and skate some more.
My sister Edna took one skate and I took the other, and I was so small that I put I it on right over my shoe.
I kissed the skate key four times a day just to have something to do.
You can watch Takahashi skate to the same music in the clip below.
Historical Examples
After this Tobias advanced, embraced his father, and then rubbed his eyes with the skate's liver.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
When in town, they skate or walk or visit the riding-school: all good.
"You must throw that skate away," said Florent as he came up.
The Fat and the ThinEmile Zola
We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
She learned to skate in three lessons,—and how she did it too!
Tony ButlerCharles James Lever
skate1
- See roller skate, ice skate
- the steel blade or runner of an ice skate
- such a blade fitted with straps for fastening to a shoe
- a current collector on an electric railway train that collects its current from a third railCompare bow collector
- get one's skates on to hurry
- to glide swiftly on skates
- to slide smoothly over a surface
- skate on thin ice to place oneself in a dangerous or delicate situation
Word Origin
skate2
- any large ray of the family Rajidae, of temperate and tropical seas, having flat pectoral fins continuous with the head, two dorsal fins, a short spineless tail, and a long snout
Word Origin
skate3
- US slang a person; fellow
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for skate
n.1
"type of flat, cartilaginous fish, a kind of ray," mid-14c., from a Scandinavian source, cf. Old Norse skata "skate," Danish skade, Faeroese skøta, of unknown origin.
n.2
"ice skate," 1660s, skeates "ice skates," from Dutch schaats (plural schaatsen), a singular mistaken in English for plural, from Middle Dutch schaetse. The word and the custom were brought to England after the Restoration by exiled followers of Charles II who had taken refuge in Holland.
The Dutch word is from Old North French escache "a stilt, trestle," related to Old French eschace "stilt" (French échasse), from Frankish *skakkja "stilt" or a similar Germanic source (cf. Frisian skatja "stilt"), perhaps literally "thing that shakes or moves fast" and related to root of Old English sceacan "to vibrate" (see shake (v.)). Or perhaps [Klein] the Dutch word is connected to Middle Low German schenke, Old English scanca "leg" (see shank). Sense alteration in Dutch from "stilt" to "skate" is not clearly traced. Sense in English extended to roller-skates by 1876. Meaning "an act of skating" is from 1853.
v.
1690s, "to ice-skate," from skate (n.2). U.S. slang sense of "to get away with something" is attested from 1945. Related: Skated; skating.
Idioms and Phrases with skate
skate
In addition to the idiom beginning with skate
- skate over
also see:
- cheap skate
- on thin ice, skate