skive
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skive¹
- /ˈskaɪv/
Rhymes with -aɪv
Where it comes from
Probably from French esquiver (“slink away”), from Middle French esquiver (“to escape”), from Spanish esquivar (“to avoid, reject, elude”), from esquivo (“contemptuous, loathsome”), itself from Old French eschiver, of East Germanic origin, from Gothic *𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌿𐌷𐍃 (*skiuhs, “afraid, barefaced”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuhaz (“afraid, frightened”). Cognate with English shy, eschew.
verb skives · skiving · skived
-
To avoid one's lessons or work (chiefly at school or university); shirk.
Truancies, rather bewilderingly, have risen among children on the programme; the government hopes this is because children skive more as they get older.
Similar: skive off, skip, play hooky, play truant
noun skives
- Something very easy, where one can slack off without penalty. Mr Smith's history classes are a total skive.
- An act of avoiding lessons or work. I got the bus to school, and the driver gave me the eye, thinking I was on the skive, and I started to explain that there was something up with my head, but then I couldn't be bothered.
skive²
- /ˈskaɪv/
Rhymes with -aɪv
Where it comes from
Probably from Dutch schijf (“slice”), probably influenced by shive. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skībǭ (“a shaving; slice”).
Cognate to English shive, German Scheibe (“slice”), Old Norse skífa (“to cut into slices, slice”).
noun skives
- A rotating iron disk coated with oil and diamond dust used to polish the facets of a diamond. This accident sometimes occasions a flaw in the diamond, and always damages the skive, by tearing up its surface.
- An angled cut or bevel at the edge of something. There would be no need for medial heel skive and the heel cup can be of normal depth.
verb skives · skiving · skived
- To pare or shave off the rough or thick parts of. In the leather industry skive has another connotation, concerning splitting the skin perpendicularly to its thickness into thin layers. Imagine now being able to skive at the nanoscale.
Translations
Every language
verb To slack off
| Deutsch | schwänzen |
|---|---|
| Italiano | marinare |
| Ελληνικά | λουφάρω loufáro |
| Русский | сачкова́ть sačkovátʹ |
Talk about this word "skive." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/skive. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. skive. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/skive "skive." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/skive.Cite this
@misc{skive_2026,
title = {skive},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/skive},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
