skip

Etymology 1

From Middle English skippen, skyppen, of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skupjaną, perhaps related to *skeubaną (“to drive, push”), iterative *skuppōną (“to push/move repeatedly, skip”), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ- (“to push, throw, shake”). Related to Icelandic skopa (“to take a run”), Old Swedish skuppa (“to skip”), modern dialectal Swedish skopa, skimpa (“to skip, leap”), and English shove. See also dialectal English skimp (“to mock”) (Etymology 1), considered by some to be related.

verb

1. (intransitive) To move by hopping on alternate feet.
   She will skip from one end of the sidewalk to the other.
2. (intransitive) To leap about lightly.
   The hosts maintained their discipline and shape, even threatening to grab a second goal on the break - left-back Dan Harding made a scintillating run, skipping past a few challenges before prodding a right-footed shot that did not match his build-up. January 29, 2011, Ian Hughes, “Southampton 1 - 2 Man Utd”, in BBC
3. (intransitive) To skim, ricochet or bounce over a surface.
   The rock will skip across the pond.
   After Essien's poor attempt flew into the stands, Rodrigo Moreno - Bolton's on-loan winger from Benfica who was making his full Premier League debut - nearly exposed the Blues with a lovely ball for Johan Elmander, but it just skipped away from his team-mate's toes. December 29, 2010, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
4. (transitive) To throw (something), making it skim, ricochet, or bounce over a surface.
   I bet I can skip this rock to the other side of the pond.
5. (transitive) To disregard, miss or omit part of a continuation (some item or stage).
   My heart will skip a beat.
   I will read most of the book, but skip the first chapter because the video covered it.
   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth But they who have not this doubt, and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory, may skip these two Chapters, if they please, and proceed to the following
6. (transitive, informal) Not to attend (some event, especially a class or a meeting).
   Yeah, I really should go to the quarterly meeting but I think I'm going to skip it.
7. (transitive, informal) To leave, especially in a sudden and covert manner.
   to skip the country
   a customer who skipped town without paying her hotel bill
   I see ya' little speed boat head up our coast She really want to skip town Get back off me, beast off me Get back you flea-infested mongrel 1998, Baha Men, Who Let the Dogs Out?
8. To leap lightly over.
   to skip the rope
9. To jump rope.
   The girls were skipping in the playground.
10. (of a phonograph record) To cause the stylus to jump back to the previous loop of the record's groove, continously repeating that part of the sound, as a result of excessive scratching or wear.
11. (knitting, crocheting) To pass by a stitch as if it were not there, continuing with the next stitch.
12. (printing) To have insufficient ink transfer.

noun

1. A leaping or jumping movement; the action of one who skips.
2. The act of passing over an interval from one thing to another; an omission of a part.
   1. (video games) A trick allowing the player to proceed to a later section of the game without playing through a section that was intended to be mandatory.
3. (music) A passage from one sound to another by more than a degree at once.
4. A person who attempts to disappear so as not to be found.
   Tracking down debtors is a big part of a skip tracer's job. That's the case because deadbeats who haven't paid their bills and have disappeared are the most common type of skips. 2012, Susan Nash, Skip Tracing Basics and Beyond, page 19
5. (radio) skywave propagation

Etymology 2

From Middle English skep, skeppe, from Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”).

noun

1. (Australia, New Zealand, Britain) A large open-topped container for waste, designed to be lifted onto the back of a truck to remove it along with its contents. (see also skep).
2. (mining) A transportation container in a mine, usually for ore or mullock.
   Beside it was a great engine which worked a continuous steel rope on which the skips were fastened which drew up the débris by successive stages from the bottom of the shaft. 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed
3. (steelmaking) A skip car.
4. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket.
5. A wheeled basket used in cotton factories.
6. (sugar manufacture) A charge of syrup in the pans.
7. A beehive.

verb

1. To place an item in a skip (etymology 2, sense 1).

Etymology 3

Late Middle English skipper, borrowed from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German schipper (“captain”), earlier "seaman", from schip (“ship”).

noun

1. Short for skipper, the master or captain of a ship, or other person in authority.
2. (specially) The captain of a sports team. Also, a form of address by the team to the captain.
3. (curling) The player who calls the shots and traditionally throws the last two rocks.
4. (bowls) The captain of a bowls team, who directs the team's tactics and rolls the side's last wood, so as to be able to retrieve a difficult situation if necessary.
5. (scouting, informal) The scoutmaster of a troop of scouts (youth organization) and their form of address to him.

Etymology 4

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. Ultimately from etymology 1 (above).

noun

1. (Australia, slang) An Australian of Anglo-Celtic descent.
   2001, Effie (character played by Mary Coustas), Effie: Just Quietly (TV series), Episode: Nearest and Dearest, Effie: How did you find the second, the defacto, and what nationality is she? Barber: She is Australian. Effie: Is she? Gone for a skip. You little radical you.

Etymology 5

17th-century Ireland. Possibly a clipping of skip-kennel (“young lackey or assistant”). Used at Trinity College Dublin.

noun

1. (Trinity College, Dublin, historical) A college servant.
   Behind the Counter stood a complaisant Spark, who I observ'd shew'd as much Breeding in the sale of a Penny-worth of Tobacco, and the change of a Shilling, as a Courtier's Footman when he meets his Brother Skip in the middle of Covent-Garden; and is so very dexterous in discharge of his Occupation, the he guesses from a Pound of Tobacco to an Ounce to the certainty of one Corn […] 1703, Edward Ward, The London-spy Compleat, 5th edition, volume 1, part 7, published 1713, page 157
   He constitutes, probably, the identical exception which Sir Boyle Roche had in his mind's eye, when he broached his famous problem, that "a man cannot be in two places at once, barring he is a bird." The skip, or according to the Oxford etymology, the man-vulture, is not fit for his calling who cannot time his business so as to be present simultaneously at several places. He must be at Kinshan's on Carlisle Bridge, for Mr. Moriarty's half-pound of tea, at the very moment that Sir Looby, in the Botany Bay Square, requires his three eggs; and the Billy Sheridan of the day is singing out, like Stentor, from the tiles and skylights of a coctile edifice beside the library, for the "lazy rascal!" 1842 October, Billy Sheridan, “Reminiscences of College Life”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, page 682
   His wounded tutor, his many duns, the skip and bed-maker who waited upon him, the undergraduates of his own time and the years below him, whom he had patronised or scorned—how could he bear to look any of them in the face now? 1849, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Flight after Defeat”, in The History of Pendennis