skid

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of sliding or slipping over a surface, often sideways.
2. n. A plank, log, or timber, usually one of a pair, used as a support or as a track for sliding or rolling heavy objects.
3. n. A pallet for loading or handling goods, especially one having solid sideboards and no bottom.
4. n. One of several logs or timbers forming a skid road.
5. n. Nautical A wooden framework attached to the side of a ship to prevent damage, as when unloading.
6. n. A shoe or drag applying pressure to a wheel to brake a vehicle.
7. n. A runner in the landing gear of certain aircraft.
8. n. Slang A path to ruin or failure: His career hit the skids. Her life is now on the skids.
9. v. To slide sideways while moving because of loss of traction: The truck skidded on a patch of ice. See Synonyms at slide.
10. v. To slide without revolving: wheels skidding on oily pavement.
11. v. To move sideways in a turn because of insufficient banking. Used of an airplane.
12. v. To brake (a wheel) with a skid.
13. v. To haul on a skid or skids.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Nautical:
2. n. A framework of planks or timber fitted to the outside of a ship abreast of the hatches, to prevent injury to the side while cargo is hoisted in or out. Boat-skids are planks fitted to the outside of a ship abreast of the boat-davits, to keep the side from being chafed when the boats are lowered or hoisted.
3. n. A strut or post to sustain a beam or deck, or to throw the weight of a heavy object upon a part of the structure able to bear the burden
4. n. One of a pair of timbers in the waist to support the larger boats when aboard.
5. n. A log forming a track for a heavy moving object; a timber forming an inclined plane in loading or unloading heavy articles from trucks, etc.
6. n. One of a number of timbers resting on blocks, on which a structure, such as a boat, is built.
7. n. A metal or timber support for a cannon.
8. n. One of a pair of parallel timbers for supporting a barrel, a row of casks, or the like.
9. n. The brake of a crane.
10. n. A shoe or drag used for preventing the wheels of a wagon or carriage from revolving when descending a hill; hence, a hindrance or obstruction. Also called skid-pan.
11. To place or move on a skid or skids.
12. To support by means of skids.
13. To check with a skid, as wheels in going down-hill.
14. To slide along without revolving, as a wheel: said also of any object mounted on wheels so moving.
15. A variant of scud.
16. n. In lumbering, a log or pole, commonly used in pairs, upon which logs are handled or piled; also the log or pole laid transversely in a skid-road.
17. n. A peeling-iron; an instrument for peeling bark from trees or logs.
18. In lumbering: To draw (logs) from the stump to the skidway, landing, or mill.
19. As applied to a road, to reinforce (it) by placing logs or poles across it.
20. To check with a brake, as wheels, so that they will continue to slide but not to rotate, as the wheels of a moving train. (See skid, intransitive verb, 1.)
21. To collect (logs) and pile upon a skidway.

Wiktionary

1. n. An out-of-control sliding motion as would result from applying the brakes too hard in a car.
2. n. A runner of a sled.
3. n. A ski-shaped runner or supporting surface as found on a helicopter or other aircraft in place of wheels.
4. n. A basic form of wood or plastic platform for the storage and transport of goods, machinery or equipment, later developed into pallet.
5. v. intransitive To slide in an uncontrolled manner as in a car with the brakes applied too hard.
6. v. transitive To protect or support with a skid or skids.
7. v. transitive To cause to move on skids.
8. v. transitive To check or halt (wagon wheels, etc.) with a skid.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A shoe or clog, as of iron, attached to a chain, and placed under the wheel of a wagon to prevent its turning when descending a steep hill; a drag; a skidpan; also, by extension, a hook attached to a chain, and used for the same purpose.
2. n. A piece of timber used as a support, or to receive pressure.
3. n. (Naut.) Large fenders hung over a vessel's side to protect it in handling a cargo.
4. n. One of a pair of timbers or bars, usually arranged so as to form an inclined plane, as form a wagon to a door, along which anything is moved by sliding or rolling.
5. n. One of a pair of horizontal rails or timbers for supporting anything, as a boat, a barrel, etc.
6. n. (Aëronautics) A runner (one or two) under some flying machines, used for landing.
7. n. A low movable platform for supporting heavy items to be transported, typically of two layers, and having a space between the layers into which the fork of a fork lift can be inserted; it is used to conveniently transport heavy objects by means of a fork lift; -- a skid without wheels is the same as a pallet.
8. n. Declining fortunes; a movement toward defeat or downfall; -- used mostly in the phrase on the skids and hit the skids.
9. n. Act of skidding; -- called also side slip.
10. v. To protect or support with a skid or skids; also, to cause to move on skids.
11. v. To check with a skid, as wagon wheels.
12. v. (Forestry) To haul (logs) to a skid and load on a skidway.
13. v. To slide without rotating; -- said of a wheel held from turning while the vehicle moves onward.
14. v. To fail to grip the roadway; specif., to slip sideways on the road; to side-slip; -- said esp. of a cycle or automobile.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. slide without control
2. v. elevate onto skids
3. v. apply a brake or skid to
4. n. one of a pair of planks used to make a track for rolling or sliding objects
5. n. a restraint provided when the brake linings are moved hydraulically against the brake drum to retard the wheel's rotation
6. n. an unexpected slide
7. v. move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner