skims

Verb

skim (third-person singular simple present skims, present participle skimming, simple past and past participle skimmed)

1. (intransitive) To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
   • Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, / Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC
2. (transitive) To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
   • Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table
3. To hasten along with superficial attention.
   • They skim over a science in a very night superficial survey.1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC
4. To 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
5. (transitive) To throw an object so it bounces on water.
   • skimming stones
6. (intransitive) To ricochet.

See all 19 meanings of skim