Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A container for receiving, transporting, and dumping waste materials.
  • intransitive verb To move by hopping on one foot and then the other.
  • intransitive verb To leap lightly about.
  • intransitive verb To bounce over or be deflected from a surface; skim or ricochet.
  • intransitive verb To pass from point to point, omitting or disregarding what intervenes.
  • intransitive verb To be promoted in school beyond the next regular class or grade.
  • intransitive verb Informal To leave hastily; abscond.
  • intransitive verb To misfire. Used of an engine.
  • intransitive verb To leap or jump lightly over.
  • intransitive verb To pass over without mentioning; omit.
  • intransitive verb To miss or omit as one in a series.
  • intransitive verb To cause to bounce lightly over a surface; skim.
  • intransitive verb To be promoted beyond (the next grade or level).
  • intransitive verb Informal To leave hastily.
  • intransitive verb Informal To fail to attend.
  • noun A leaping or jumping movement, especially a gait in which hops and steps alternate.
  • noun An act of passing over something; an omission.
  • noun A control mechanism on an audio or video player that interrupts the playing of a recording and advances or reverses to the beginning of the nearest chapter, track, or other division.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In poker, a straight in which the cards are alternate, such as 2, 4, 6, 8, 10: when played, it beats two pairs.
  • noun In mining, an iron box for raising ore, differing from the kibble in that it runs between guides, while the kibble hangs free. In metal-mines the name is sometimes given to the box when it has wheels and runs on rails.
  • noun A leap; a spring; a bound.
  • noun A passing over or disregarding; an omission; specifically, in music, a melodic progression from any tone to a tone more than one degree distant. Also called salto.
  • noun That which is skipped; anything which is passed over or disregarded.
  • noun In the games of bowls and curling, the player who acts as captain, leader, or director of a side or team, and who usually plays the last bowl or stone which his team has to play. Also called skipper.
  • noun A college servant; a scout.
  • noun In sugar-making, the amount or charge of syrup in the pans at one time.
  • To move suddenly or hastily (in a specified direction); go with a leap or spring; bound; dart.
  • To take light, dancing steps; leap about, as in sport; jump lightly; caper; frisk; specifically, to skip the rope (see below).
  • To make sudden changes with omissions; especially, to change about in an arbitrary manner: as, to skip about in one's reading.
  • To pass without notice; make omission, as of certain passages in reading or writing: often followed by over.
  • To take one's self off hurriedly; make off: as, he collected the money and skipped.
  • In music, to pass or progress from any tone to a tone more than one degree distant from it.
  • To leap over; cross with a skip or bound.
  • To pass over without action or notice; disregard; pass by.
  • To cause to skip or bound; specifically, to throw (a missile) so as to cause it to make a series of leaps along a surface.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A light leap or bound.
  • noun The act of passing over an interval from one thing to another; an omission of a part.
  • noun (Mus.) A passage from one sound to another by more than a degree at once.
  • noun [Slang.] a lackey; a footboy.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Bluefish, 1.
  • intransitive verb To leap lightly; to move in leaps and hounds; -- commonly implying a sportive spirit.
  • intransitive verb Fig.: To leave matters unnoticed, as in reading, speaking, or writing; to pass by, or overlook, portions of a thing; -- often followed by over.
  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot. A basket. See skep.
  • noun A basket on wheels, used in cotton factories.
  • noun (Mining) An iron bucket, which slides between guides, for hoisting mineral and rock.
  • noun (Sugar Manuf.) A charge of sirup in the pans.
  • noun A beehive; a skep.
  • transitive verb To leap lightly over.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Variant of skep (in its earlier meaning, basket).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English skippen, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A reference to the television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo; coined and used by Australians (particularly children) of non-British descent to counter derogatory terms aimed at them.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word skip.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • buzz twitch skip then purr in that order

    June 11, 2007

  • WordNet omits one of the common British English meanings.

    February 22, 2009

  • That meaning being "giant bin", I assume, b?

    February 22, 2009

  • Yep, a.k.a. dumpster.

    February 22, 2009

  • Hey. I resemble that remark.

    February 23, 2009

  • But I thought you were "move forward by leaps and bounds"?

    February 23, 2009

  • I kind of like "bound off one point after another." Anything but "a mistake resulting from neglect," I suppose. Or dumpster.

    February 24, 2009

  • Whatever you say, bypass.

    February 24, 2009

  • This is a whole new world for me. Things were rough when the Skipper doll came out. And we won't even go into Skippy Peanut Butter...

    February 24, 2009

  • Got kids? The little ones are called mini skips.

    February 24, 2009

  • Skippyyyyy... Skippyyyyy... Skippy the Bush Kangaroooooo...

    February 24, 2009

  • Poor Skip. Guy can't get any respect.

    February 24, 2009

  • Actually, I'm surprised that joke doesn't come up more often.

    February 25, 2009

  • So, I've gone from being a dumpster to being a joke? My mom would be so proud.

    February 25, 2009

  • “Let’s face it: if baseball and football were in the winter, nobody would be watching,” said Robert P. Kelly, the chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon, who took up curling when he was growing up in Canada. He is a former “skip” — the player who usually directs the strategy during a game —and dispenses curling tips to employees. ”

    The New York Times, On Wall Street, a Romance With the Curling Stone, by Eric Dash, February 25, 2010

    February 26, 2010

  • "15. In sugar-making, the amount or charge of syrup in the pans at one time."

    --Century Dictionary

    March 9, 2011

  • When making sugar I usually skip the first step.

    March 10, 2011

  • *wonders if Skip dispenses curling tips to his sugar-making buddies*

    March 10, 2011