skim

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.

verb

1. (intransitive) To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
2. (transitive) To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
   Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean. 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table
3. To hasten along with superficial attention.
4. To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
5. (transitive) To throw an object so it bounces on water.
   skimming stones
6. (intransitive) To ricochet.
7. (transitive) To read quickly, skipping some detail.
   I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.
8. (transitive) To scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
9. (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
10. (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
11. To steal money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
    Obviously, the longer cash sits around before being recorded, the more likely it is that a skimming fraud will occur. 2006, Herbert Snyder, Small Change, Big Problems, page 48
    […] take this money without entering anything into the record-keeping system, thereby accomplishing a theft by skimming. 2009, Tracy L. Coenen, Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide, page 109
12. To surreptitiously scan a payment card in order to obtain its information for fraudulent purposes.
13. (intransitive) To become coated over.

adj

1. (of milk) Having lowered fat content.

noun

1. A cursory reading, skipping the details.
   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. 2012, John Friend, Allen Hickling, Planning Under Pressure, page xxii
2. (informal) Skim milk.
   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. 2010, Gary G. Kindley, Growing Older Without Fear: The Nine Qualities of Successful Aging
3. The act of skimming.
   Then you could jump 150 years and enjoy a skim across the Solent in Britain's remarkable Hovercraft. 1969, Newsweek, volume 74, page 75
4. That which is skimmed off.
5. Theft of money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
   It's a hustle, but it keeps me busy. I can take in three to three-fifty a week, more with skims. 1976, Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, spoken by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro)
   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. 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