skate

• IPA^(key): /skeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt
• Hyphenation: skate

• skait (archaic)

Back-formation from Dutch schaats, from Middle Dutch schāetse, from Old Northern French escache (“a stilt, trestle”) (compare French échasse and English scatch), from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *skakkjā (“stilt”, literally “thing that moves”), related to *skakan (“to shake, swing”).

skate (plural skates)

1. A runner or blade, usually of steel, with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, made to be fastened under the foot, and used for gliding on ice.
2. Ellipsis of ice skate.
3. Ellipsis of roller skate.
4. The act of skateboarding

   There's time for a quick skate before dinner.

5. The act of roller skating or ice skating

   The boys had a skate every morning when the lake was frozen.

6. (rail transport, Philippines, chiefly Bicol) A makeshift handcar.

skate (third-person singular simple present skates, present participle skating, simple past and past participle skated)

1. To move along a surface (ice or ground) using skates.
2. To skateboard.
3. (skiing) To use the skating technique.
4. (slang) To get away with something; to be acquitted of a crime for which one is manifestly guilty.
5. To move smoothly and easily.
   • March 26 2023, David Hytner, “Kane and Bukayo Saka combine against Ukraine for England’s perfect Euros start”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Addressing a short pass from Henderson, he always felt too smart for Mykola Matviyenko, taking a step to lure him one way; dropping his shoulder and skating in the other direction, further inside.

skate (not comparable)

1. (skiing) Pertaining to the technique of skating.

From Middle English skat, scate (also schat), from Old Norse skata (“skate”). Cognate with Icelandic skata (“skate, ray”), Norwegian skate (“skate”).

skate (plural skates or skate)

2. A fish of the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea (rays) which inhabit most seas. Skates generally have small heads with protruding muzzles, and wide fins attached to a flat body.
   • 1952, Nikos Kazantzakis, chapter 1, in Carl Wildman, transl., Zorba the Greek, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, translation of Βίος και πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá], →ISBN, page 3:

     The fishermen crowding in the cafés were also waiting for the end of the storm, when the fish, reassured, would rise to the surface after the bait. Soles, hog fish and skate were returning from their nocturnal expeditions. Day was now breaking.

   • 1995 December 26, William J. Broad, “Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Other deep creatures now being harvested or targeted as seafood include rattails, skates, squid, red crabs, orange roughy, black oreos, smooth oreos, hoki, blue ling, southern blue whiting, sablefish, black scabbard fish and spiny dogfish.

   • 2025 September 13, Daniel Thomas, “Lunch with the FT: Shonda Rhimes”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3:

     I opt for skate, which comes with a Champagne sauce, and a glass of Californian Pinot Gris.

Origin uncertain,^[1] but probably related to skite.

skate (plural skates)

1. A worn-out horse.
2. Alternative form of skite (“a mean or contemptible person”).

• cheapskate
• labor skate

• “skate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Keast, Keats, Skeat, Stake, kates, ketas, stake, steak, takes, teaks

From English skate.

• IPA^(key): /es̺kei̯t/ [es̺.kei̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -es̺kei̯t, -ei̯t

skate inan

1. skateboard
2. skateboarding

• “skate”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

From English skate, back-formed from Dutch schaats.

• Audio:

  (file)

skate m (plural skates, diminutive skateje n)

1. inline skate

• skaten

skate

1. inflection of skaten:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative
   4. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /sket/

skate m (plural skates)

1. a skateboard

skate

1. inflection of skater:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “skate”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

skate

1. inflection of skaten:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

From skat(īt) (“to see, look”) +‎ -e.

• IPA^(key): [skatɛ]

skate f (5th declension)

1. display, exhibition, show (a planned event with the goal of showing, demonstrating something to the public; syn. izstāde)

   modes skate ― fashion show

   tēlotājas mākslas skate ― fine art show

   zemkopības tehnikas skate ― agriculture machinery show

   mākslinieciskās pašdarbības skate ― amateur performance show

2. inspection, survey, review (syn. apskate)

   tarifikācijas skate ― classification, ranking review

   iziet skati ― to pass the scrutiny, test, inspection

• apskate
• izstāde

From Old Norse skata.

skate m (definite singular skaten, indefinite plural skater, definite plural skatene)

1. a skate (a fish)
2. a dried tree without branches

• “skate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse skata.

skate f (definite singular skata, indefinite plural skater, definite plural skatene)

1. a skate (a fish)

• “skate” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• esqueite (Brazil, uncommon)

Unadapted borrowing from English skate.

skate m (plural skates)

1. skateboard (small platform on wheels)

• “skate”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “skate”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Unadapted borrowing from English skate.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskeit/ [ˈskei̯t̪], /esˈkeit/ [esˈkei̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -eit

skate m (plural skates)

1. skating, skateboarding

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.