skive
Americanverb (used with object)
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to split or cut, as leather, into layers or slices.
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to shave, as hides.
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to finish the turning of (a metal object) by feeding a tool against it tangentially.
verb
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skivesimple
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skivessimple
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have skivedperfect
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has skivedperfect
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am skivingprogressive
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are skivingprogressive
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is skivingprogressive
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have been skivingperfect progressive
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has been skivingperfect progressive
Past
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skivedsimple
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had skivedperfect
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was skivingprogressive
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were skivingprogressive
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had been skivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skive
1815–25; perhaps < Old Norse skīfa 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:
Employers tend to provide workers control over their work when they trust and believe that will contribute back to the company rather than to skive off work.
From Slate ● Jan. 30, 2018
It’s dishonest to defraud a religious organization by promising to perform charity work and then faking an illness to skive off.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2016
So imagine how hard it is to skive.
From The Guardian ● May 27, 2015
Give more people who can’t skive off work during the week the chance to attend.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 7, 2014
If I was Grant Burch or Ross Wilcox or any of the council-house kids from down Wellington End, I'd just skive off and hop over that stile and follow the bridleway to wherever it went.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Thankfully he woke up but, still faced with the prospect of school, he "skived off" and visited the library instead where he could relax and read.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2019
I skived off at one point and went to the Science Museum, which had just opened its Wellcome Wing focusing on contemporary science.
From Nature ● Sep. 11, 2019
Last I heard, Melania had successfully skived off on a weekend trip to Camp David.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 3, 2018
The only time Lampard has admitted getting into trouble at school – Brentwood, a public school – was when he skived off to play in a youth cup game for West Ham.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 1, 2013
He must've skived off most days 'cause his empty desk became a sort of school joke.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
"When I'd been there five or six months, I started skiving school, but I was located within an hour," she explains.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026
A wonderfully comforting movie that celebrates the world of idling, skiving, goofing off, and what the French flaneurs called “botanising on the asphalt”.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 12, 2020
"He learnt about comedy by skiving off school and coming to watch comedians on stage here."
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2019
He had a profound effect on me, and helped me to hone my skiving skills at a crucial time in my life.
From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2018
“If Snape’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I’m skiving off,” said Ron as they headed toward Lupin’s classroom after lunch.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
