skate over

British  

verb

1. to cross on or as if on skates

2. to avoid dealing with (a matter) fully

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skate over Idioms  

1. Treat superficially or hurriedly, avoid mentioning, as in He concentrated on the main points of the contract and skated over the details. This idiom transfers the gliding motion of skating to dealing with something in a cursory way. [Mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

Sakamoto has a slim lead heading into Sunday’s free skate over 15-year-old American Isabeau Levito, who scored 71.30 points in her senior Grand Prix debut.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 22, 2022

But it can’t skate over the aberrant actions that led to his imprisonment.

From New York Times • Sep. 2, 2021

My girls have always wanted me to do this but I’ve always been too scared someone will skate over my fingers!

From BBC • Sep. 21, 2020

Milly, struggling to write a eulogy for her father: “And what do I do about the wives? I mean, two you can skate over, but four’s straying into comedy, isn’t it?”

From Washington Post • Sep. 11, 2016

It ‘There are literary-critical and theological questions over whether it occurs to Satan that there’s the possibility of repentance, but we’ll skate over those here. “

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith