# skip

Pronunciation: say "SKIP" /skɪp/

## Verb

1. To leave out or pass over an item, step, or stage in a sequence and go on to the next.
   - Simple: To leave out one part or step and go straight on to the next one.
   - _The recipe lets you skip the marinating step if you're short on time._
   - _He skipped several questions on the exam and came back to them later._
2. To deliberately not attend an event, especially a class or meeting. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To stay away from a class or meeting you were supposed to attend.
   - _Several students skipped the lecture to study for another exam._
   - _I never skip team meetings, even when I'm busy._
3. To move along lightly with small hops and leaps, stepping and hopping on each foot in turn, or to leap lightly over something.
   - Simple: To move along with light, bouncing jumps, hopping from one foot to the other, or to jump lightly over something.
   - _Lambs skip and frolic in the meadow each spring._
   - _On the last day of school, the kids skipped down the sidewalk, laughing and swinging their bags._
4. To bounce lightly across a surface, such as water, or to throw something so that it does this.
   - Simple: To bounce across water or the ground, or to throw a flat stone so it does this.
   - _Well-thrown stones skip several times before sinking._
   - _The pebble skipped twice and then dropped beneath the surface._
6. To leave a place suddenly and secretly, often to avoid trouble. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To leave a place suddenly and secretly.
   - _The con artist was always ready to skip town the moment suspicions arose._
   - _When the police started asking questions, he skipped town in the middle of the night._
9. Of a moving part such as a disc, chain, or belt, to jump or slip out of its regular motion, missing a section or going over one again.
   - Simple: Of a moving part like a disc or chain, to jump or slip and miss or repeat a bit.
   - _Scratched CDs tend to skip, especially in a car on a bumpy road._
   - _The worn timing belt skipped a tooth, and the engine stopped running smoothly._
11. To jump repeatedly over a swinging rope as a game or form of exercise.
   - Simple: To jump over a rope that is swung under your feet again and again.
   - _Boxers often skip to build footwork and stamina._
   - _The children skipped together, chanting a rhyme._
16. To put something into a skip, a large waste container that a truck lifts and carries away along with its contents.
   - Simple: To put something into a large metal box for trash that a truck lifts and takes away.

## Noun

5. An act or way of passing over part of something, including a trick for bypassing part of a video game.
   - Simple: An act or way of leaving out or going past part of something, as in a video game.
   - _Speedrunners use a well-known skip to bypass the whole water level._
   - _A noticeable skip in the recording left out an entire verse._
7. A light leaping or jumping movement.
   - Simple: A light jump or hop.
   - _With a quick skip, she hopped over the crack in the sidewalk._
   - _His walk turned into a series of skips as the music played._
10. In British usage, a large waste container designed to be lifted onto a truck and removed along with its contents. *(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: In British use, a large open metal container for waste, which a truck lifts and carries away.
   - _They ordered a skip for the renovation and filled it within a day._
   - _The council fined them for leaving a skip on the road without a permit._
8. In curling or bowls, the captain who directs the team's play and usually delivers its last stones or bowls.
   - Simple: In curling or bowls, the team leader who tells the others what to do and usually plays last.
   - _The skip crouched at the far end, holding the broom to mark the target._
   - _Their skip read the ice perfectly and called for a takeout._
12. Someone who tries to vanish so that no one can track them down.
   - Simple: Someone who runs away and hides so that people cannot find them.
   - _The bondsman finally located the skip in another state._
   - _Tracing a skip often means following a trail of unpaid bills._
13. The captain of a ship or sports team, or another person in charge; a skipper. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: An informal word for the captain of a boat or team, or anyone in charge.
   - _The skip kept the crew calm as the storm closed in._
   - _The crew always checked with the skip before knocking off early._
14. A song not worth listening to, most often one of the tracks on an album. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A song, usually on an album, that is not good enough to bother listening to.
   - _The record is solid except for one obvious skip near the end._
   - _Critics called the bonus track a skip and praised the rest._
15. The manager above one's immediate boss; the boss of one's boss. *(slang)*
   - Simple: The boss of your own boss: the manager one step higher up.
   - _He scheduled a one-on-one with his skip to discuss the reorganization._
   - _When the team lost its manager, the skip stepped in temporarily._
17. The scoutmaster of a scout troop, and likewise the scouts' form of address for him. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: The adult leader of a scout troop, and the name the scouts use when speaking to him.
   - _Every camp ended with the skip leading the troop in a final song._
   - _"Skip, the river's too high to cross," warned the patrol leader._
18. A move from one note to another that spans more than a single step at once.
   - Simple: A move from one note to another that jumps over the notes in between.
   - _The melody opens with a skip from the tonic up to the fifth._
   - _Singers often slide where the score actually calls for a clean skip._
19. The reflection of radio waves off the ionosphere, allowing signals to travel far beyond the horizon; skywave propagation.
   - Simple: The way a radio signal bounces off the upper air and travels far past the horizon.
   - _Amateur operators waited for the skip to open up the higher bands._
   - _Unusual skip brought in a distant AM station late at night._
20. A container, hoisted in a shaft or run on rails, for carrying ore or waste rock in a mine.
   - Simple: A big box in a mine that carries rock up a shaft or along rails.
   - _At the top of the shaft, the skip tipped its load of ore into a waiting bin._
   - _Crews emptied the skip of mullock before the next blast._
21. An Australian of Anglo-Celtic descent. *(slang, Australia)*
   - Simple: An Australian whose family came originally from Britain or Ireland.
   - _At the barbecue the skips chatted with the Greek and Lebanese families._
   - _Growing up in a mostly Greek neighborhood, she was the only skip at her school._

## Other meanings

- (verb) Of a printing press or printer, to transfer too little ink, leaving gaps or faint areas in the image.
- (noun) A basket, for instance a fisherman's creel or one carried in the hand.
- (noun) A basket on wheels, used mainly for moving goods around textile mills.
- (noun) A batch of syrup loaded into the boiling pans in sugar making.
- (noun) A dome-shaped hive of plaited straw or wicker for keeping bees.
- (noun) A man employed to look after students' rooms at a college.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–7, 9, 11–12, 14, 18–19** — Middle English skippen or skyppen came from a North Germanic source that goes back to Proto-Germanic *skupjaną. That form may be connected with a root meaning "to drive, push," traced to *skewbʰ- in Proto-Indo-European, meaning "to push, throw, shake." English shove, Old Swedish skuppa ("to skip"), and Icelandic skopa ("to take a run") are related.
**Meanings 10, 16, 20** — Old Norse skeppa or skjappa ("basket, bushel, measure"), which may come from scheppe, a Middle Low German word for "a unit of weight," gave Old English sceppe and then Middle English skep or skeppe. German Scheffel ("bushel") may be connected, and all of these words might ultimately be tied to *skap ("shape").
**Meanings 8, 13, 17** — Middle Dutch and Middle Low German schipper, formed from schip ("ship"), first meant "seaman" and later "captain." Late Middle English borrowed it as skipper.
**Meaning 21** — Australians of non-British background, especially children, coined and used this word to answer insulting names aimed at them. It refers to the TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and ultimately goes back to etymology 1.
**Meaning 15** — A clipping of skip-level manager.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/skip (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).