skate
1 Americannoun
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the blade of an ice skate.
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a skid on a lifeboat to facilitate launching from a listing ship.
verb (used without object)
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to glide or propel oneself over ice, the ground, etc., on skates.
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to glide or slide smoothly along.
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Slang. to shirk one's duty; loaf.
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(of the tone arm on a record player) to swing toward the spindle while a record is playing.
verb (used with object)
idioms
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get / put one's skates on, to make haste.
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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.
noun
plural
skate,plural
skatesnoun
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the steel blade or runner of an ice skate
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such a blade fitted with straps for fastening to a shoe
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a current collector on an electric railway train that collects its current from a third rail Compare bow collector
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to hurry
verb
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to glide swiftly on skates
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to slide smoothly over a surface
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to place oneself in a dangerous or delicate situation
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
- skateable adjective
Etymology
Origin of skate1
First recorded in 1640–50; originally plural scates, from Dutch schaats (singular) “skate,” Middle Dutch schaetse “stilt” (compare Medieval Latin scatia ), of unknown origin
Origin of skate2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English scate, from Old Norse skata
Origin of skate3
First recorded in 1890–95; perhaps special use of skate 2
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.
The mural will feature three images of Liu, including two of her skating, but the centerpiece is a larger-than-life headshot of her from the women’s singles medal ceremony.
From Los Angeles Times
Meanwhile, a few kilometers away, another American took the ice to skate for gold in the signature event of the Winter Games.
Liu’s skate, which won her the individual gold medal, the first U.S. women’s skater do so since 2002, is already Winter Olympics legend.
Georgia earned their first Winter Olympic medal with silver in pairs figure skating, while Spain collected their first gold medal for 54 years in the men's ski mountaineering.
From BBC
Then the game started—and the U.S. skated into a new era of American hockey.
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.
