/skaɪt/
OriginFrom Middle English skyt, skytte, skytt, from Old Norse skítr (“dung, faeces”), from Proto-Germanic *skītaz, *skitiz. Cognate with Old English sċite (“dung”). Doublet of shit and shite.
- obsoleteA sudden hit or blow; a glancing blow.
- A trick.
- A contemptible person.
“When Carey told on Skin-the-Goat / O'Donnell caught him on the boat / He wished he'd never been afloat / The dirty skite.”
- IrelandA drinking binge.
“I needed alcohol to stop my nerves rattling. This felt like the longest period I'd been without my drug of choice for at least three years. I needed to go on a skite.”
- Australia, Ireland, New-ZealandOne who skites; a boaster.
“[T]he Rooster was one of those fine, upstanding, bumptious skites who love to talk all day, in the heartiest manner, to total strangers while their wives do the washing.”
- IrelandA whimsical or leisurely trip.
“We're going on a skite to Dublin.”
- Australia, Ireland, New-ZealandTo boast.
“You boast and skite from morn to night / And think you're very brave, / But the men who really did the job / Are dead and in their graves.”
“He still had bumfluff on his cheeks, he was that young. About once a month he used to shave it off, and come skiting about it. I smiled at the memory of him all lathered up, grinning at me through the”
“That Smasher, he said, and forced laugh. My word he can spin a yarn! She glanced towards him, her face halved by the lamplight. Just skiting, you reckon?”
- uncommonTo skim or slide along a surface.
“[…] skiting down that steep slope. But it's one thing to slide down a steep slope and quite another thing to climb back up - as Mary Jane soon discovered. Try her hardest , she simply could not get up”
“[…] of rock shearing off and skiting down the cliff-face as a black guillotine blade.”
- Scotland, especiallyTo slip, such as on ice.
“At this point I skited on a discarded banana and decided to use my eyes instead of my brains.”
“... skited on a particularly hazardous weet bit o' the harbour and fell flat in […]”
“... skited on the way and nearly took a tumble. Inside there's a fire, but the room's that big there's lacings of frost on all the windows. Forty beds reeking and heaving; devils dancing about and bet”
- To move swiftly; to move in leaps and bounds.
“His very shuttle skytes boldly along, and clatters through in faithful time to the tune of his merrier shopmates!”
“... flashy blades gae skytin' by, […]”
“... he wasn't fit to be thravellin' the len'th of the ward, that indifferent he was, let alone skytin' over the ocean-says.”
- To pop, to quickly or briefly make a trip to.
“[…] skiting over to Europe and back before you know it, taking notes on the way going and coming .”
“... skiting over to Hartford City and back in a day. I don't suppose we could hear all of it, but we heard most of it. We turned the corner on Madison Street, came up Washington, got to the front of t”
“... skited over with empty suitcases for a shopping trip just before Christmas.”
- Scotland, slangTo drink a large amount of alcohol.
Formsskites(plural) · skyte(alternative) · skites(present, singular, third-person) · skiting(participle, present) · skited(participle, past) · skited(past)