Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use skim in a sentence

38 example sentences · verb, adjective, noun

Skim means to pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface. Example: “I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.”

Examples of skim by meaning

verbTo put on a finishing coat of plaster.

  • Ceilings are lined with fibrous asbestos, the internal plastering being reduced to skimming alone.1924, The Architect, volume 112, page 291

verbTo read quickly or describe summarily, skipping some detail.

  • I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.

verbTo clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the...

  • to skim milk
  • to skim broth

verbTo clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh...

  • to skim cream

verbTo steal money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.

  • Obviously, the longer cash sits around before being recorded, the more likely it is that a skimming fraud will occur.2006, Herbert Snyder, Small Change, Big Problems, page 48

nounSkim milk.

  • Two percent milk has only a fraction less fat than whole milk, so unless you are feeding a child or someone whose diet requires whole milk, skim is best.2010, Gary G. Kindley, Growing Older Without Fear: The Nine Qualities of Successful Aging

nounThe act of skimming.

  • Then you could jump 150 years and enjoy a skim across the Solent in Britain's remarkable Hovercraft.1969, Newsweek, volume 74, page 75

nounTheft of money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.

  • I can take in three to three-fifty a week, more with skims.1976, Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, spoken by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro)
  • This potential is further increased by the ease of passing on the costs of corruption and racketeering to consumers; a skim of only one percent of a construction project can amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.1989, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Waste...

More sentences with skim

  • We like to drink skim milk instead so as to consume fewer calories.From the entry skim milk
  • We like to drink skimmed milk instead so as to consume fewer calories.From the entry skimmed milk
  • He logged on to yahoo.com, skimmed the front page, and decided to sign in.From the entry log on
  • The multi-pass compiler skims the source code looking for directives on the first pass.From the entry multi-pass
  • The hovercraft skimmed across the open flats.From the entry flat
  • She cast about for something lighthearted to say and skimmed a finger over his upper lip.2012, S. Dionne Moore, Promise of Tomorrow, Barbour Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry scoundrelish
  • Those flat-trajectory shells would skim straight in, making a roaring sound in the dark: Foom!2000, James Bradley, Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima. From the entry foom
  • The halusky should be skimmed from the water with a slotted spoon and drained of excess water.1999 October, The Women’s Society of St. Ignatius Loyola Church, Come On Inn…, Memphis, Tenn.: The Wimmer Companies, →ISBN, page 194. From the entry halusky
  • Then sand again, and apply a second skim coat, if needed.1990, Mindy Drucker, Pierre Finkelstein, Recipes for Surfaces, →ISBN, page 56. From the entry skim coat
  • A flurry of skimmed passes across the wide-open spaces of the Germany defence left Lozano in space in the area.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The…. From the entry snipe
  • The ball skimmed off the sidewall near the corner and into the lower-right corner of the front wall.2009, Allan D. Moore, Doms Need Love Too!: Adventures of the Day Old Muffins, page 116. From the entry sidewall
  • "Oh, buggeration." Her fidgety mother had skimmed three oranges off the top of the fruit bowl with her sleeve.2004, Michael Lawrence, A Crack in the Line. From the entry buggeration
  • A skim coat touches up small voids.2004, Exterior Siding, Trim, and Finishes, →ISBN, page 140. From the entry skim coat
  • Earlier in this chapter, I skimmed over image filesize and have subtly touched on it throughout the book so far.1997, Raymond Pirouz, Click Here: Web Communication Design. From the entry filesize
  • Getting a blemish-free skim coat is more difficult.1991, Robert Matthews, “Plastering”, in Practical House Building: A Manual for the Selfbuilder, Leicester, Leicestershire: Blackberry…. From the entry screed
  • Gary watched it skim across the Court.1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 42. From the entry frisbee
  • Leaves and gumwrappers and ice cream sticks skimmed across the surface and lodged in the strands of slowly undulating hair.1989, Lieberman, Herbert H, Shadow dancers : a novel, Little, Brown, page 4. From the entry gumwrapper
  • A strong sea wind lashed at his city suit, salt rain stung his eyes, balls of spume skimmed across his path.1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy. From the entry spume
  • The cream had been skimmed from it.1968, Charles Portis, True Grit. From the entry blue John
  • Birds of many kinds skimmed the weedy flats.1912, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Ken Ward in the Jungle, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 31. From the entry aigrette
  • Before dialing his office, he skimmed his trial notes, trying for the umpty-umpth time to poke a hole in the prosecution's case.2005, David A. Weiss, Paralegal . Paramour. From the entry umpty-umpth
  • Egyptian salt from Alexandria was highly appreciated, especially their fleur de sel, the light crystals skimmed off the surface of the water.2002, Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History. From the entry fleur de sel
  • “The use of so-called ‘filled milk’ (skimmed cow’s milk with vegetable fats or oils added) is increasing, particularly in economically underdeveloped countries.1962, Indian Dairyman: Journal of the Indian Dairy Science Association, page 199. From the entry infant formulæ
  • "Skim, you 'member in thet las' book we read, 'The Angel Maniac's Revenge,' there was a sayin' that fate knocks wunst on ev'ry man's door.1908, Edith Van Dyne, Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville. From the entry wunst
  • For many centuries, milk with a high fat content was considered to be the best, and low-fat or skimmed milk was considered fraudulent—in fact, selling it was often illegal.2018, Mark Kurlansky, “Chapter 1: The First Taste of Sweetness”, in Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas, Bloomsbury, →ISBN. From the entry milk
  • I have to say, I've skimmed a few HP fanfic archives looking for MSTable material, and I haven't yet found anything that was pathetic enough in the right ways.2003 April 5, Petrea Mitchell, “Re: Fan fics?”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet). From the entry MSTable
  • I go away for less than two months, come back, skim through RAMD and you're still errantly labeling folks using the same old unsupported "anti" this and that Mike.1999 June 10, Michael Cahill, “Inconsistencies of the Tick System”, in rec.arts.marching.drumcorps (Usenet), archived from the original on…. From the entry bandkid
  • A man was swimming out towards them, his flailing arms black and defined in the heat-hazy radiance as the wings of a cormorant that skimmed the water.1987, Nadine Gordimer, “Intelligence”, in A Sport of Nature […] (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 139. From the entry cormorant

Meaning of skim

  1. verb To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
  2. verb To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
  3. verb To hasten along with superficial attention.

Full definition of skim

Questions about skim in a sentence

How do you use skim in a sentence?
Skim is used as a verb, adjective and noun. For example: “I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.”
What is a short sentence with skim?
“to skim broth”
What does skim mean?
Skim means to pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skim (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use skim in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/skim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.