skewer
Americannoun
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skewers
plural
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a long pin of wood or metal for inserting through meat or other food to hold or bind it in cooking.
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any similar pin for fastening or holding an item in place.
verb (used with object)
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skewers,
present (3rd person singular)
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skewered,
past participle, past
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skewering
present participle
noun
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a long pin for holding meat in position while being cooked, etc
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a similar pin having some other function
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chess a tactical manoeuvre in which an attacked man is made to move and expose another man to capture
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skewersimple
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skewerssimple
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have skeweredperfect
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has skeweredperfect
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am skeweringprogressive
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are skeweringprogressive
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is skeweringprogressive
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have been skeweringperfect progressive
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has been skeweringperfect progressive
Past
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skeweredsimple
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had skeweredperfect
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was skeweringprogressive
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were skeweringprogressive
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had been skeweringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skewer
First recorded in 1670–80; earlier skiver < ?
Explanation
The pointed wooden stick you use to hold cubes of meat or vegetables together while they're cooking is called a skewer. You can also use a very long skewer to toast marshmallows over a campfire. As a verb, skewer means to push a skewer through food: "Would you skewer those shrimps, and toss them on the grill?" It's also an informal term meaning to criticize someone so harshly that it probably hurts them: "This opinion piece in the newspaper really skewers the President." Experts guess that skewer has a Scandinavian root, possibly the Old Norse skifa, "a cut or slice."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hunched over sizzling grills and shrouded in smoke, trainees at the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in southern China roast skewer after skewer of succulent beef tendon, perfecting the skills that could land them a restaurant job.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
For decades, Chinese brothers Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang have made a name for themselves with sculptures like this: irreverent contemporary artworks that skewer the authoritarian past, and present, of their native homeland.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
And skewer others: the butterfly keyboard, FineWoven cases, walled gardens, Siri and AirPower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
The play, which is having its Los Angeles premiere at Pasadena Playhouse, seems like it could have been commissioned to skewer this destructive, benighted and completely mortifying anti-science moment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2025
Pong took the skewer out of his mouth.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
When you get hungry, take a quick walk to Checker Hall, a neighborhood bar and restaurant that serves California-Mediterranean food such as skewers, turkish chicken and chicken schnitzel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
Here, Melville is an American Kafka or Gogol, and in this guise, he skewers our pervasive national ethos that values ambition and striving above all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
You can even make the drink an entire meal by adding mini sliders on skewers.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2026
Top your mocktail with fried bacon, cheese on skewers and pepperoni.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2026
I got chicken on wooden skewers and brought it back to the table wrapped in wax paper.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
I worked at a magazine when the first film, which lightly skewered Anna Wintour, came out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
"Customers understand that it's a luxury dish," chef Tomoyuki Takashino said from behind the stove as he skewered an eel he had just killed and filleted.
From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025
Away from the gilded hallways, “SNL” skewered the design sense of both Trumps.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025
Rebellious colonists skewered British taxation policies, military blunders and parliamentary pomposities through plays, songs and cartoons that rallied others to the cause of independence and made mass mobilization fun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025
Tyrion had skewered a chunk of meat on the point of his dagger and brought it to his mouth.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
He is also a deft social satirist, no more so than when skewering his characters’ politically correct pretensions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
For its upcoming Los Angeles venue, experiential art firm Meow Wolf will focus on the art of storytelling, with a specific eye toward skewering our city’s moviemaking magic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
In the classroom, trainees crowded around instructor Luo Duocheng as he demonstrated slicing a slab of beef, marinating it, and skewering the meat to form identical kebabs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
It's unclear whether Eisner was joking and knew that Lohan had played both roles or not but that didn't stop a witty, young Lohan from skewering the executive.
From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2024
The medium began to stalk around the clearing, skewering the villagers with his gaze.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
