Definition

1. Verb:

   • To move with light, hopping steps: To proceed by taking a step and then a small hop, often in a playful or energetic manner.
   • To omit or pass over: To intentionally fail to include, do, or attend something.
   • To leave hastily or secretly: To depart suddenly or without notice.
   • To cause to bounce lightly: To make something, like a flat stone, bounce off a surface.

2. Noun:

   • A light, hopping step: A gait or movement involving a step and a hop.
   • An omission or mistake: An instance of leaving something out or failing to do it.

Usage Examples

• Verb:

  • The children skip happily down the sidewalk. (They move with hopping steps.)
  • I decided to skip the boring meeting. (I chose not to attend.)
  • He had to skip town quickly. (He had to leave the town secretly and in a hurry.)
  • Can you skip a stone across the pond? (Can you make a stone bounce on the water?)

• Noun:

  • Her walk was more of a joyful skip. (Her movement was a light, hopping step.)
  • There was a skip in the data, making the report incomplete. (There was an omission in the data.)

Advanced Usage

• "Skip out on": To leave or avoid a responsibility, often deceitfully.

  • He tried to skip out on paying the bill. (He tried to leave without paying.)

• "Skip a beat": Used to describe a momentary pause, often due to surprise, fear, or excitement (commonly with the heart).

  • My heart skipped a beat when I heard the loud noise. (My heart momentarily paused or fluttered.)

• "Skip to the chase": To get to the main point without wasting time on details.

  • Let's skip to the chase—what's the final cost? (Let's get directly to the important part.)

Variants and Related Words

• Skipper (noun): A captain or leader, especially of a team or boat.
  • She is the skipper of the volleyball team.
• Skip rope (noun phrase): A rope used for the activity of jumping over it; also the activity itself (more commonly called "jump rope").
  • The kids are playing with a skip rope in the yard.

Synonyms

• Verb: Bypass, omit, miss, hop, bound, flee.
• Noun: Omission, oversight, hop, bounce.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Skip over: To omit or pass by something quickly.
  • You can skip over the introduction if you already know the basics. (You can omit reading the introduction.)
• Skip off: To leave quickly or playfully.
  • The dog skipped off with the ball. (The dog ran off playfully with the ball.)

Related Idioms

• Skip it: Used to tell someone to forget about something, that it's not important.
  • "What were you saying?" "Oh, never mind, skip it." (Forget what I was saying.)
• A hop, skip, and a jump: A very short distance.
  • The store is just a hop, skip, and a jump from here. (The store is very close by.)

Noun

1. a mistake resulting from neglect
2. a gait in which steps and hops alternate

Verb

1. cause to skip over a surface
   • Skip a stone across the pond
2. bound off one point after another
3. leave suddenly
   • She persuaded him to decamp
   • skip town
4. jump lightly
5. intentionally fail to attend
   • cut class
6. bypass
   • He skipped a row in the text and so the sentence was incomprehensible