Definition

1. Noun:
   • The act of moving lightly and quickly over a surface, making contact: Refers to a light, swift, touching movement, often while passing by something.
   • The fraudulent practice of not declaring income to evade taxes: The deliberate concealment of earnings to avoid paying the required taxes.
   • The action of reading or looking over something quickly to grasp the main ideas: Reading rapidly to get a general sense of the content without studying details.
   • The act of removing a layer of material from the surface of a liquid: The process of taking off floating matter, such as cream from milk or debris from water.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The skimming of the swallow's wings over the pond was beautiful to watch.
  • The businessman was arrested for tax skimming.
  • A quick skimming of the report revealed the key findings.
  • The skimming of fat from the soup is an important step in the recipe.

Advanced Usage

• "Skimming and scanning": A reading technique where "skimming" is used for getting the gist, and "scanning" is for locating specific information.

  • Effective researchers use both skimming and scanning to review literature quickly.

• "Skimming operation": A term often used to describe an illegal setup for stealing credit card information or cash.

  • Police uncovered a large credit card skimming operation at the gas station.

Variants and Related Words

• Skim (verb): To move lightly over a surface, to read quickly, or to remove matter from the surface of a liquid.

  • Birds skim the water's surface. Please skim the article before the meeting. Skim the foam off the top.

• Skimmer (noun): A device or tool used for skimming, or a person who skims (e.g., reads quickly or commits fraud).

  • Use a skimmer to clean the pool. He's a fast skimmer of newspapers. Authorities are looking for the skimmer who installed the device on the ATM.

Synonyms

• Glancing: Looking briefly.
• Creaming: Removing the cream layer (specific to liquids).
• Defrauding: Cheating, especially financially.
• Graze: To touch lightly in passing.

Related Phrases

• "Skim off the top": To take the best or richest part of something, often dishonestly.

  • The corrupt official was accused of skimming off the top of the public funds.

• "Skim through": To read or look at something very quickly.

  • I only had time to skim through the document before the meeting.

Noun

1. the act of brushing against while passing
2. failure to declare income in order to avoid paying taxes on it
3. reading or glancing through quickly
4. the act of removing floating material from the surface of a liquid