| 释义 |
▪ I. skip, n.1|skɪp|
Also 5 skyp(pe, 5–7 skippe (6 szkippe).
[f. skip v.1]
1. a. An act of skipping; a slight bound or spring. hop, skip, and jump (see hop n.2 3).
c1440Promp. Parv. 290/2 Lawnche, or skyppe, saltus. c1450Mir. Saluac. (Roxb.) 165 The ydicus [sic] made a skippe fro heven to the anone. 1508Dunbar Gold. Targe 19 For mirth of May, wyth skippis and wyth hoppis, The birdis sang vpon the tender croppis. 1647Trapp Marrow Gd. Authors in Comm. Ep. 655 Father Latimer..suddenly gave a skip in the floor for joy. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., The Address, Nor did I mount them [the steps] with a skip and a couple of strides. 1807–8Irving Salmag. (1824) 80 She was a young lady of most voluminous proportions, that quivered at every skip. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped ii, The woman..turned with a skip, and was gone.
fig.1650Bulwer Anthropomet. Pref., Whether by Art's rude force, or Natures skip I know not. 1667Pepys Diary 26 Apr., And hath come into his place..with a great skip over the heads of a great many. 1817Scott in Lockhart (1837) IV. iii. 84, I..had hoped..to have indulged myself with a skip over the Border.
b. = leap n.1 3.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 478 Two or three thorough skips are quite sufficient for the purposes of conception.
2. a. An act of passing from one thing or point to another with omission or disregard of what intervenes.
1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. v. (1674) 8 Not conferring places upon her Nobility by skips and leaps, but by degrees and gradation. 1665Hooke Microgr. 127 Nor do I imagine that the skips from the one to another will be found very great. 1853Kane Grinnell Exped. v. (1856) 36 To avert the disastrous consequences of a twelve hours' skip in their polar reckonings. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect I. 197 It is a long skip between 1789 and 1807.
b. Mus. A passing from one note to another at a greater interval than one degree.
1730Treat. Harmony 29 It is only in the foresaid Skips that we can make use of Discords upon the accented Part of the Bar. 1869Ouseley Counterp. Canon & Fugue vii, In three-part counterpoint skips are always to be avoided. 1873H. C. Banister Music 53 Two successive wide skips in the same direction being generally undesirable.
c. Matter in a book which may be skipped in reading.
1833Macaulay Ess., Walpole (1897) 275 In his books there are scarcely any of those passages which, in our school days, we used to call skip. 1889Hannay Capt. Marryat viii. 122 The scenes in which his heroines are on the stage are skip. Amine's appearances, however, are not skip.
d. Poker. = skip straight s.v. skip v.1 8.
1880J. Blackbridge Compl. Poker-Player vii. 48 ‘Skips’ consisting of alternate cards in sequence for instance, 3, 5, 7, 9, Jack. 1905R. F. Foster Practical Poker 75 A skip is almost twice as difficult to get as any other straight, the exact odds against it being 423 to 1.
e. Radio. The phenomenon of the poor or non-existent reception of signals from a particular station which occurs between points where signals propagated directly from the station become undetectable and points where signals begin again to be received owing to reflection in the upper atmosphere. Also applied to the silent region itself, and to radio signals received from beyond it.
1925[see skip region, sense 5 below]. 1927O. F. Brown Elem. Radio-Communication xvi. 203 The existence of the skip is explained by there being insufficient electrons to bring the wave down again until the angle of incidence becomes that corresponding to the 500 range. 1931Observer 8 Nov. 18/5 Because of ‘skip’ it will hardly ever be audible in this country. 1965B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irregular iv. 114 The ‘skip’ was explained..as being the heavenward arc made by the path of the waves emitted by the short-wave transmitters. 1976Perkowski & Stral Joy of CB vii. 68 The FCC purposely limited CB operations to distances under 150 miles to preclude the use of skip. 1976S9 (N.Y.) Feb. 88/2 When CB skip starts rolling in, he says that's the time to start tuning 25 to 50 MHz.
f. In automatic data processing, the action of a machine (e.g. a punch) in passing over material not requiring the functioning of the machine; a computer instruction or routine specifying such action.
1946[see skip bar, sense 5 below]. 1962Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 91 Machines in current use can perform the function called skip wherein a field in which no punching is required is rapidly passed under the punch knives, which are not active at the time. 1966H. P. Hartkemeier Data Processing iv. 199/1 All functions of the machine are stopped while a skip is taking place. 1969P. B. Jourdain Condensed Computer Encycl. 468 An unconditional skip is a computer instruction demanding that the next n instructions be ignored. 1976Kernigan & Plauger Software Tools iii. 80 Skip produces n blank lines.
3. [prob. short for skip-kennel.] A footman, lackey, or manservant. In later use spec. at Trinity College, Dublin, a college-servant, a scout.
1698–1700Ward Lond. Spy vii. Wks. 1706 I. 157 As a Courtiers Footman when he meets his Brother Skip. 1716–20Lett. fr. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) I. 142, I was surprized to see a Skip transformed so speedily into a Trumpeter. 1732Dodsley The Footman 91 Then to the hall I guide my steps, Amongst a crowd of brother skips. 1839Lever H. Lorrequer xiii, Call your own skip.., damn me if I'll be your skip any longer. 1884Punch 22 Mar. 141/2 A good man once, now, so his skip informs me,..smokes six or seven pipes of strong tobacco..every night.
4. N. Amer. colloq. One who absconds, spec. to avoid paying debts; one who defaults in payment.
1915J. R. Foote Mod. Collection Methods 32 In some lines of business, much, and in some, most of the collection department work is the tracing of skips. A skip is a handy term used to describe a debtor who finds it easy to forget to leave any tracks when he moves his earthly possessions. 1939Amer. Speech. XIV. 240 Skip, guest who leaves without paying his bill. 1949Collier's 8 Jan. 27/1 Kleinman's book of procedures lists exactly 110 ways to trace a skip. 1978Detroit Free Press 14 Apr. 2c/2 Jean Phelan traces all kinds of hard-to-locate ‘skips’—the defaulters who have ‘skipped’ out.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2 e) skip distance, skip region, skip zone; (sense 2 f) skip bar; (sense 4) skip-trace, skip-tracer, skip-tracing vbl. n.
1946Ann. Harvard Computation Laboratory I. 274 Cards may be punched containing a function in the first columns of the cards and a serial number in the last columns of the cards. After the function is punched, a duplicating card and *skip bar control the punch.
1926Physical Rev. XXVII. 189 Larmor's theory of refraction due to the electrons of the Kennelly-Heaviside layer does not explain the ‘*skip distances’ for short radio waves. 1977T. Allbeury Man with President's Mind vii. 75 The radiated strength was fifty kilowatts..a power of about seventy-five kilometres due east. It would be the skip distance that carried it to Washington, or a relay from London.
1925Proc. IRE XIII. 680 An uncertain region not far from the transmitter has been introduced between 100 and 350 miles during the summer night range and a *skip, or entirely-missed, region, occurs in the winter night ranges between 100–350 miles.
1970K. Conway Naked Nemesis ii. 18 The last one hadn't paid me... There wasn't enough involved for me to start a *skip-trace on him. 1980J. Gardner Garden of Weapons ii. i. 119 The Yanks think we need it [sc. a safe house] for a skip-trace outfit. They think we've lost somebody.
1953Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (1954) §460/18 *Skip tracer, a tracer of defaulting debtors. 1960P. S. Beagle Fine & Private Place i. 12 You ran away from it [sc. life] nineteen years ago, and it follows you like a skip-tracer. 1978Globe & Mail (Toronto) 14 Sept. 3/2 Mr. Lillie testified that he is a skip-tracer who tracks down persons who default on their debts then change addresses.
1960J. Blish Galactic Cluster 124 If he has rebuilt..the Universe to accommodate a private *skiptracing firm..I..see no reason why we can't countercheck him. 1977B. Garfield Recoil xi. 134 This is..better than repossessing cars and skip-tracing.
1926Physical Rev. XXVII. 192 The *skip zone was not very sharply defined. 1946Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 27 Jan. i. 16/6 The skip zone is one of the knottiest problems of present-day radio communications.
Add:[1.] c. An act or instance of absconding; a flit. colloq. (orig. N. Amer.).
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §58/2 Hasty or unceremonious departure,..skidaddle, skip, slope. 1978R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xxviii. 331 It was a very professional skip. 1981‘A. Hall’ Pekin Target ix. 95 I'd left my things in Room 29 as..routine procedure for a skip, to let them assume I was simply out for the evening. 1987Age (Melbourne) 7 Nov. (Weekend Suppl.) 6/5 ‘Sometimes, our clients sit down in front of us and cry,’ says Mrs Roberts. Some contemplate suicide or ‘doing a skip’.
▪ II. skip, n.2
Also skipp.
[var. of skep n. (q.v. for skip in other senses).]
In mining or quarrying, a bucket, box, basket, cage, or wagon, in which materials or men are drawn up or let down. Also gen., a large container for the reception and conveyance of materials or rubbish.
1815Ann. Reg., Chron. 86 Some colliers were descending into a coal pit,..five in one skip and four in the other. 1841in Hartshorne Salop. Ant. Gloss. 1884Building News 15 Aug. 283/3 The mortar and other rubbish was also lowered in skips. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 775/2 Skip,..a bucket used for the transport of spoil or materials and hung for this purpose from a crane or cableway. 1950Landfall (N.Z.) IV. 125 We start loading seasoned timber into one of the skips. 1972Daily Tel. 17 Jan. 3/3 Householders who leave builders' skips—large containers which can be hired to take away rubble—at the kerbside for collection by a special vehicle face fines of up to {pstlg}100 under a law coming into force today. 1978Cornish Guardian 27 Apr. 8/8 There will be a skip placed at the Town Hall, St. Columb and at the entrance to Halloon Avenue, St. Columb Road, on Friday, 28th. April, and at the Town Hall and Public Conveniences, Indian Queens on Friday, 12th. May, 1978 for Bulk Household refuse collections.
attrib.1875J. H. Collins Met. Mining 75 A plan of a shaft with double skip-road adapted for wheels. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2196/2 Skip-shaft (Mining), one boxed off by itself for the skip to ascend and descend in. 1951J. Clemo in D. V. Baker One & All 260 He had worked as a loader in a clay-pit near Pengarth, and one winter's day he had been crushed by a skip-waggon. 1972Conyus in A. Chapman New Black Voices 219 Shoveling straw Into the mouth of the skip loader. 1976Star (Sheffield) 29 Nov. 12/5 (Advt.), Sale, TK skip lorry. 12 months' test.
▪ III. skip, n.3 orig. Sc.
[abbrev. of skipper n.2]
The director or captain of a curling or bowling team or side. Also gen., a captain, a commanding officer, a manager, a boss.
1830Memorab. Curl. Maben. 29 The other skips having arranged among themselves, the boards were selected [etc.]. 1862Chambers's Encycl. III. 368/1 Sides are made up, usually consisting of four against four, with a director styled skip for each. 1881Sat. Rev. No. 1318. 138 A great moorland farmer having to figure as skip on the one side. 1921Amer. Legion Weekly 28 Jan. 7 The skip wanted to investigate. 1930T. Fredenburgh Soldiers March! xxv. 201 Better get into a wagon somewhere..in case the Skip starts prowling. 1948M. Allingham More Work for Undertaker xiii. 163 I've been chinning with the old Skip and he says Bang on, jolly good show. 1955Times 15 Aug. 8/5 In rink games the ‘skip’, or captain, of each side stands near the jack to direct his men by voice or signal where their next shot should arrive. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 35/5 In addition to winning several minor bonspiels, the Thornhill skip is in the last 16 for the Ontario Curling Association Championship. 1970Wall St. Jrnl. 8 July 18/6 If you're ever called up to play baseball in the big leagues, be sure to call the manager ‘Skip’. Managers like to be called Skip. 1973D. Kyle Raft of Swords (1974) viii. 81 On the flight deck..the young navigator said, ‘I don't really understand what we're looking for, skip.’ ‘Just Russian warships.’ 1977N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 1–10/3 Who are Arthur Connew's great heroes in all those many years and thousands of ends of bowling? J. S. Martin in the singles and Jimmy Mingins and Mort Squire as skips. 1977S. Wales Guardian 27 Oct. 4/5 Skip Mr. Cliff Davies invested new members to the scout troop.
▪ IV. skip, n.4
[f. skip v.2]
(See quots.)
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Skip, in sugar-making in the West Indies, a charge or strike of syrup from the coppers. 1885C. G. W. Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iv. 163/2 The difficulty is determining the exact moment when the boiling of the ‘sling’ in the striking-teach must cease, i.e. when to make a ‘skip’.
▪ V. † skip, n.5 Obs.—0
(See quot.)
1688Holme Armoury iii. 260/2 Goat skins are reckoned by the skip, which is 50 Skins.
▪ VI. skip, n.6
Abbrev. of schipperke.
1895Our Dogs I. 128/2 The best class of Skips ever seen in England.
▪ VII. skip, n.7 orig. Sc.|skɪp|
[Origin obscure.]
The peak of a cap.
1888A. G. Murdoch Scotch Readings (Ser. 2) 29 Ye're surely no ettlin' to put on that ugly twa-faced kep..wi' the skip baith back an' fore? 1969M. Pugh Last Place Left ii. 11 He adjusted his American fatigue cap so that the skip almost covered his eyes. 1974H. MacInnes Climb to Lost World xi. 207 ‘Hiya, Jo. Did you make it?’ asked Don, peering up from beneath his cap skip.
▪ VIII. skip, v.1
Forms: 4–6 skippe (4 schippe), 4–7 skyppe (5 sckyppe), 6 skype; 4– skip (4 schip, ? scep, 4–6 scip), 5 skyp(p, 6–7 skipp.
[app. related to MSw. skuppa, skoppa in the same sense (cf. also scope v.1), but the history of the vowel is not clear.]
I. intr.
1. a. To raise oneself off the ground by a light and graceful movement; to spring or leap lightly and easily, spec. in the exercise of skipping with a rope.
a1300Cursor M. 23569 For to skip and for to rin, Quen it war better for to blin. 1390Gower Conf. II. 95 With such gladnesse I daunce and skippe, Me thenkth I touche noght the flor. 1406Hoccleve La Male Regle 120 Seeknesse..paieth me my wage, So þat me neithir daunce list, ne skippe. c1460Wisdom in Macro Plays 54 For ioy, I sprynge, I sckyppe. 1530Palsgr. 719 Are you nat ashamed to skyppe thus in your daunsynge, lyke a gyrle of the countray? 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 227 The grassehopper..skipped, leapt and chirpte, in her kinde. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 27 [These nymphs] would oft run races, skipping like wanton Lambes. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 54 Up he skips upon his legs, as manfully as a Taylor upon a Shop-Board. 1792F. Burney Diary 24 Sept., Sophia skipped with joy, and Cecilia was all smiles. 1844Hood Skipping i, Little Children skip, The rope so gaily gripping. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile x. 259 He skips, and screams, and grins like an ubiquitous goblin.
fig.1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. Concl. (1739) 201 If at any time he skipped higher, he afterwards fell lower.
b. With cognate accusative. rare.
1602Marston Antonio's Rev. v. iv, Force the plump lipt god, Skip light lavoltaes in your full sapt vaines.
2. a. To spring or leap lightly in a certain direction or to a certain point; to move or advance by a skip or skips. Const. with advs. and preps.
a1300K. Horn 1361 (Ritson), The knyht to Horn gan skippe, And in his armes clippe. 13..K. Alis. (Laud MS.) 1108 Hym to awreke, kyng Philipp Ouer þe table gan to skipp. 1382Wyclif Acts xiv. 13 Barnabas and Poul..scipten out into the cumpanyes. c1450Merlin xxvii. 552 Gaheries toke the horse..to Gueheret his brother, and made hym skippe in to the sadell. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark Pref. 4 Hou uncomely a thing it were if a Philosophier would..scip about the stage. 1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 23 On sands from vessels dooth skippe thee coompanye cheereful. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 158 Thus burthened, [he] shal trauell till hee come where he can skip into Paradice. 1676Hobbes Iliad (1677) 266 Let none from hence again retire..Nor any man before the rest skip out. 1726Cavallier Mem. i. 58 He was very much surprised to see Eighteen young Men skipping one after another into his House. 1786tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 110 She skipped along with the alertness of an antelope. 1841B. Hall Patchwork III. 146 Our walker skipped from rock to rock at a great rate. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 955 They skip up stairs two at a time.
fig.1388Wyclif Ecclus. xxxviii. 37 And thei schulen not skippe ouer in to the chirche. 1583Greene Mamillia ii. Wks. (Grosart) II. 282 Insomuch that they say when the gods made beautie, they skipt beyond their skill. 1692S. Patrick Answ. Touchstone 58 The Faith of the Gospel (unto which he now skips).
b. To hasten, hurry, move lightly and rapidly; to make off, abscond. Also with out and as to skip it. Now colloq.
1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 255 To Paris gan he skip, & held his parlement. c1400Laud Troy Bk. 2920 Eche man..with his god schippes And alle here good thedur skippes. 1479Paston Lett. III. 257 Ye had ned to be ware that th' Exchetor skyppe not from you, when he comyth to London. 1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 142/2 The foresaid rebels, who skipped to and fro in such sort, that in no case could he find them at any aduantage. 1590Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 8 What is Orlando, but a stragling mate,..Skipt from his countrey. 1830Marryat King's Own xix, By Jove, you'd better skip for it, or you'll have what Captain M.— says. 1865M. Grigsby Diary 3 Jan. in Smoked Yank (1888) xxi. 179 Thirteen [paroled men]..skipped out to-day. 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 107 So, to throw her father off the scent, on the appointed night we ‘skipped’ and went by way of Fort James. 1902‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Jan. 265/2 Skip out for the coast some night. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 193 Juvenile language is well stocked..with expressions inviting a person's departure, for instance:..skip it, sling your hook, [etc.]. a1966‘M. na Gopaleen’ Best of Myles (1977) 308 The son turned out to be a very bad bit of work, sold all the furniture to buy drink and then skipped it to America. 1969G. Lyall Venus with Pistol xxxv. 231 He tells Dona Margarita we seem to have skipped out together. 1977J. Thomson Case Closed ii. 21 Bibby hadn't turned up. He wondered if he had skipped out.
3. a. To pass from one point, matter, etc., to another with omission of what intervenes; in mod. use spec. to do this in reading.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 622 Cleopatra, The weddynge & the feste to deuyse..It were to longe,..And for thy to thefeect thanne wele I skyppe. 1559in Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. App. xi. 35 He that woulde challenge kyndred of Constantyne the Great, and woulde from his father skippe upp streight to Constantyne. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 199, I had rather Haue skipt from sixteene yeares of Age to sixty. 1864Burton Scot Abroad II. ii. 150, I must really spare the reader two thirds of this portentous list, and skip for him to the conclusion. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life iv. iv. 163 The art of reading is to skip judiciously.
b. Similarly with over. Also sometimes, to pass over with very slight or superficial treatment.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. 4417 Late him be with sorwe, And skippeth ouer wher ȝe list nat rede. 1548Elyot, Prætereo,..to make no mencion of, to skippe ouer, to leaue out a thyng, that shulde be spoken of. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 454 The nimble Perfunctorinesse of some Commentators (that skip over hard Places). 1725Watts Logic 344 They skip over, and but lightly touch the drier part of their theme. 1843Maitland Dark Ages xv. (1890) 274 As I am not writing history,..let us skip over rather more than a century. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) x. 248, I might have skipped over these difficulties like the proverbial chamois.
4. a. Of things, in literal or fig. senses.
c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋361 In this wise skippeth venial in to deedly synne. 1500–20Dunbar Poems liv. 8 Quhou hir schort catt noiss vp skippis. 1568Like Will to Like in Hazl. Dodsley III. 331 The barrel was turned to a ship, Which me-thought the wind made nicely to skip. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. lxxxv, Bright Palestine, Whose woods drop honie, and her rivers skip with wine. 1663S. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. (1667) 330 Just as the Loadstone draws Iron to it, and makes it skip into its Bosome. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 212 Quick sensations skip from vein to vein. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xviii, The landlord stirred the fire, sending the flame skipping and leaping up.
b. Mus. To pass from one note to another at an interval of more than one degree.
1868Ouseley Harmony iii. (1875) 52 The seventh may skip sometimes to the fifth on the same bass.
II. trans.
5. a. To pass over in reading, or in going through a book, etc. Also with over, and in fig. context.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 158 Not sparing your voyces, not clipping the syllables, nor skyppyng ony worde. 1597Middleton Wisd. Solomon i. 7 Christ skips thy faults, only thy virtue reads. 1604― Father Hubbard's T. Wks. 1885 VIII. 54 To skip it over and say that line were naught. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Preface p. iv, Those that are well versed in the New Philosophy..may skip what was design'd. 1753Richardson Grandison (1781) IV. ii. 21 The Doctor looked so earnestly at me, when he skipped two sides of it. 1823Lamb Let. to Barton 17 Feb., I do not think that I skipped a word of it [sc. a book]. 1875R. F. Burton Ultima Thule I. xii, Let the reader ‘skip’ such photos if he likes.
b. To pass over without mentioning, dealing with, taking into account, etc.; to omit.
1531Elyot Governor ii. xiv. (1557) 141 Oftentimes a..loker on espieth a default, that the doer forgetteth or skyppeth ouer. 1593Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. 232 How childish an ouersight was it for Paul to skip the whole bench of them. 1669Bp. Hopkins Serm. 1 Peter ii. (1685) 66 A day it was, that..we might well wish that the Year would skip it over. 1684T. Burnet Theory Earth ii. 180 In reckoning up the chief patrons of it, he always skips Justin Martyr. 1787F. Burney Diary Apr., I shall skip useless recollections upon unpleasant subjects. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 52 Two virtues remain; shall we skip one and go to the other? 1893W. Forbes-Mitchell Rem. Mutiny 2, I intend to skip much that has already been recorded in the pages of history.
c. To pass over, pass by, without touching or affecting in any way. Also with over.
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. v, He, making a reverse blow,..enters the linings [of a doublet] and skips the flesh. 1607Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 110 Let not thy sword skip one: Pitty not honour'd Age for his white Beard. 1626Middleton Women Beware W. ii. ii, All means to come by riches or advancement Miss me, and skip me over! 1778R. Lowth Transl. Isaiah Notes xxxi. 162 He passed over, or skipped, those houses, and forbore to smite them. 1886G. Allen Darwin ii. 25 It is fashionable to say..that the mental energy skips a generation. 1898Manson Trop. Dis. viii. 155 Sometimes it [the plague] skips a house, a village, or a district.
d. To miss, escape from. rare—1.
1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 132/2 Ther's nothing of him that doth hanging skip Except his eares.
e. Phr. skip it, let's skip it: an exhortation or command to drop a subject or forget something. orig. U.S.
1934M. H. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 395 Skip it, drop the matter. 1939R. Chandler Big Sleep xiii. 97, I started to say: ‘What the hell—!’ ‘Oh, skip it,’ Eddie Mars sighed. 1943M. McCarthy Company she Keeps vi. 195 ‘Oh, Dr James,’ she sighed. ‘Let's skip it this time.’ 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited 17 Oh, very conscientious, I'm sure. Skip it and get a move on. 1955E. Cadell Lark shall Sing x. 116 ‘I hate to seem to butt in on your―’ ‘Skip it. Go ahead and help me.’ 1971R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel ii. 31 At home..we cope and never give it a second thought. Out here we―oh, skip it! 1977New Yorker 3 Oct. 40/3 Forgive me... Let's skip it, then, she says.
f. To forgo, to abstain from; to omit to take part in or to do.
1961in Webster s.v. 1skip, The president skipped his regular Thursday press conference. 1970K. H. Cooper New Aerobics ix. 137 Women suffering from cramps find exercise extremely uncomfortable. Common sense alone tells them to skip exercise during those days. 1979R. Jaffe Class Reunion ii. ix. 209 They picked at their dinner, unable to eat the roast pigeon..or the salad, and skipping dessert.
6. a. To jump or leap lightly over (something); to go off, leave (rails).
a1732Swift Tom Mullinex & Dick vii, Tom could move with lordly grace, Dick nimbly skip the gutter. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 121 Nelly lightly skipt the stile. 1903Daily Chron. 18 May 6/5 A little later another car skipped the rails.
b. To absent oneself from, stay away from.
c1810W. Hickey Memoirs (1960) ii. 28, I had intended to skip school, and take the usual march with the Guards to Kensington. 1824Southey in Life & Corr. (1849) I. 141 Having one day skipped school to attend a concert. 1951J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye xxv. 270 If I let you skip school this afternoon and go for a little walk, will you cut out the crazy stuff? 1976National Observer (U.S.) 17 Jan. 1/2 School phobia is a fairly common reason why some kids skip school.
c. U.S. colloq. To flee (a place).
1884Milnor (Dakota) Teller 12 Sept., The granger school master..skipped the country this week. 1885Santa Fé Weekly New Mexican 10 Sept. 4/7 George Handley, a laundryman at Albuquerque, has skipped the town. 1906U. Sinclair Jungle xxv. 307 The offending gambler had got wind of what was coming to him, and had skipped the town. 1977Detroit Free Press 11 Dec. 11-B/1 Cliff won't go along with Molly's scheme to take Olive's $10,000 and skip town.
d. to skip (one's) bail = to jump (one's) bail (see jump v. 10 a).
1900Congr. Rec. 5 Feb. 1521/2, I should like the gentleman to know that one lot of those ballot-box stuffers are in jail and every one of the others has skipped his bail. 1930P. W. Slosson Great Crusade (1931) 88 The I.W.W. leader who had ‘skipped bail’ and fled abroad. 1973Black Panther 16 June 3/3 Eldridge Cleaver..skipped bail to avoid prosecution.
7. To cause to skip, bound, or jump.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. ⁋13 He skips his Balls both at once from the first and third Row to the second and fourth Row. 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) II. lv. 194 The usual friendly invitation however was given..by skipping several rifle bullets across the river. 1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Pat. 26 He had skipped pebbles on it and waded across it at low tide.
fig.1867F. H. Ludlow Little Briggs & I 217 Retired merchants, who had a passion for skipping away their hard dollars on the bottomless pond of fancy cattle-breeding.
III. 8. The verbal stem in comb., as skip-bombing (see quot. 1973); also attrib.; skip-bone = skipjack 3; skip-brain a., flighty, hare-brained; † skip-frog, the game of leap-frog; skip-louse, a tailor; skip mackerel U.S., the blue-fish or skipjack; skip-read v. trans. and intr., to read (a book) while skipping the passages of less importance; so skip-reader; skip-rope, a skipping-rope (Cent. Dict.); skip straight Poker, a straight (straight n. 5) consisting of cards of alternate values; skip-tail, a spring-tail; skip-tooth (see quot. 1875).
1943Time 18 Jan. 68/3 A U.S. Flying Fortress thundered into the Jap Harbor at Rabaul..to make the first test in the South Pacific of a new technique—‘*skip-bombing’. 1944W. W. Elton et al. Guide Naval Aviation ix. 172 A skip-bombing airplane must be fast and maneuverable... Tanks and ships are often attacked with skip bombing. 1964D. Macarthur Reminisc. vi. 171 Special preparations were made to carry out a new technique of skip-bombing in the event of unfavorable weather and low cloud formations. 1973J. Quick Dict. Weapons & Mil. Terms 401/2 Skip bombing, a method of aerial bombing in which the bomb is released from such a low altitude that it slides or glances along the surface of the water or ground and strikes the target at or above water level or ground level.
1901E. L. Arnold Lepidus 33 As he finished a drum-stick, or pitched a clean-picked *skip⁓bone into the ferns.
1603J. Davies (Heref.) Microcosmos Wks. (Grosart) I. 30/1 This *skipp-braine Fancy moves these easie Movers To loue what ere hath but a glimpse of good.
1727Boyer Fr. Dict. ii, Skip-Frog, (a sort of Play, amongst Boys), La Poste.
1807J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life xx. (ed. 3) 271 We laugh that win, Since we pay but for one, tho' nine *Skip-lice get in.
1884Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 433 About New York they are called ‘*Skip Mackerel’.
1977M. T. Bloom 13th Man (1978) p. ii, *Skip-read all you want through the book, but go through the last page word by word. 1977Modern Railways Dec. 490/1 Once taken up it is not a book which can be skip-read, for every page is packed solid with information.
1973Howard Jrnl. XIII. 342 A very clear and easy to read book which should present no difficulties to the *skip-reader.
1887J. W. Keller Game of Draw Poker 17 Efforts have been made to introduce into the game of Draw Poker what is known as the ‘*skip’ straight—a sequence of alternate cards. 1944A. H. Morehead Mod. Hoyle 31 Skip straight, a sequence of cards once separated in rank. Examples: A—Q—10—8—6, or J—9—7—5—3.
1839Penny Cycl. XV. 188/1 The small insect called Podura Plumbea, the common *Skiptail.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2196/2 *Skip-tooth Saw, a saw in which alternate teeth are cut out.
▪ IX. skip, v.2
[ad. Du. scheppen (G. schöpfen) to ladle, bale, dip, draw (water), etc.]
trans. To transfer (sugar) from one vessel to another in the process of manufacture.
a1818M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834) 87 Till it becomes sufficiently free from impurities to be skipped off, that is, to be again ladled out of the coppers and spread into the coolers. 1843G. R. Porter Sugar Cane (ed. 2) 211 When the sugar is perfectly clarified it is skipped off, or passed into another vessel.
▪ X. skip, v.3
[f. skip n.3]
trans. To command or direct (a team in curling or bowling) as skip.
1900Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald 2 June 5/2 President and Vice-President skipped rinks pitted against each other. |