skim
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English skemen, skymen, variants of scumen, from Old French escumer (“to remove scum”), from escume (“froth, foam”), from Frankish *skūm (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz (“foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *skew- (“to cover, conceal”). See scum.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /skɪm/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɪm
Verb
[edit]skim (third-person singular simple present skims, present participle skimming, simple past and past participle skimmed)
- (intransitive) To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
- 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
- Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, / Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
- (transitive) To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
- 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table:
- Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.
- To hasten along with superficial attention.
- 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
- They skim over a science in a very night superficial survey.
- To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
- (transitive) To throw an object so it bounces on water.
- skimming stones
- (intransitive) To ricochet.
- (transitive) To read quickly, skipping some detail.
- I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.
- (transitive) To scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
- (transitive) To clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the surface.
- to skim milk
- to skim broth
- (transitive) To clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk.
- to skim cream
- To steal money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
- 2006, Herbert Snyder, Small Change, Big Problems, page 48:
- Obviously, the longer cash sits around before being recorded, the more likely it is that a skimming fraud will occur.
- 2009, Tracy L. Coenen, Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide, page 109:
- […] take this money without entering anything into the record-keeping system, thereby accomplishing a theft by skimming.
- To surreptitiously scan a payment card in order to obtain its information for fraudulent purposes.
- (intransitive) To become coated over.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
[edit]skim (not comparable)
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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Noun
[edit]skim (countable and uncountable, plural skims)
- A cursory reading, skipping the details.
- 2012, John Friend, Allen Hickling, Planning Under Pressure, page xxii:
- For a first quick appreciation of the approach, we recommend a fast reading of Chapter 1, then a skim through the figures of the next two chapters — glancing at the definitions of key concepts that appear below the figures in Chapters 2 and 3.
- (informal) Skim milk.
- 2010, Gary G. Kindley, Growing Older Without Fear: The Nine Qualities of Successful Aging:
- Two percent milk has only a fraction less fat than whole milk, so unless you are feeding a child or someone whose diet requires whole milk, skim is best.
- The act of skimming.
- 1969, Newsweek, volume 74, page 75:
- Then you could jump 150 years and enjoy a skim across the Solent in Britain's remarkable Hovercraft.
- That which is skimmed off.
- Theft of money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
- 1976, Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, spoken by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro):
- It's a hustle, but it keeps me busy. I can take in three to three-fifty a week, more with skims.
- 1989, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at Federally Funded Wastewater Treatment Construction Projects, volume 4:
- This potential is further increased by the ease of passing on the costs of corruption and racketeering to consumers; a skim of only one percent of a construction project can amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Indonesian: skim
Anagrams
[edit]Afrikaans
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Dutch schim, from Middle Dutch schim, schem, from Old Dutch *skim, *skimo, from Proto-Germanic *skimaz, *skimô (“shine; light”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]skim (plural skimme)
Indonesian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From English skim, from Middle English skemen, skymen, variants of scumen, from Old French escumer (“to remove scum”), from escume (“froth, foam”), from Frankish *skūm (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz (“foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *skew- (“to cover, conceal”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]skim
- skim milk: non-fat milk; milk that has had the cream removed.
Usage notes
[edit]The word is part of difference between Standard Malay and Indonesian. The Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore usage can be seen in Malay skim.
Malay
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]skim (plural skim-skim, informal 1st possessive skimku, 2nd possessive skimmu, 3rd possessive skimnya)
Usage notes
[edit]The word is part of difference between Standard Malay and Indonesian. The Indonesian usage can be seen in Indonesian skim.
Alternative forms
[edit]- skema (Indonesia)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
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- Rhymes:English/ɪm
- Rhymes:English/ɪm/1 syllable
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- en:Liquids
- en:Milk
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Old Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Old Dutch
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- Indonesian terms derived from Middle English
- Indonesian terms derived from Old French
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- Indonesian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Indonesian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Indonesian lemmas
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