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skim

Pronunciation: /skɪm/

The English word “skim” has 19 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
  2. To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
  3. To hasten along with superficial attention.
  4. To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
  5. To throw an object so it bounces on water.
  6. To ricochet.
  7. To read quickly or describe summarily, skipping some detail.
  8. To scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
  9. To clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the surface.
  10. To clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk.
  11. To steal money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
  12. To surreptitiously scan a payment card in order to obtain its information for fraudulent purposes.
  13. To become coated over.

adjective

  1. Having lowered fat content.

noun

  1. A cursory reading, skipping the details.
  2. Skim milk.
  3. The act of skimming.
  4. That which is skimmed off.
  5. Theft of money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.

Etymology

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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.