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Skiff
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 A small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern.
"Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern."
- 2 A light, fleeting shower of rain or snow, or gust of wind, etc.
"A skiff of rain blew into the shed and the two men moved their chairs back."
- 3 An act of slightly pruning tea bushes, placing new leaves at a convenient height without removing much woody growth.
"In the fourth year, "light skiff" pruning removes just the uppermost growth."
- 4 any of various small boats propelled by oars or by sails or by a motor wordnet
- 5 Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person.
"I went alone into a Shepherd's boat, A skiff that to a willow-tree was tied Within a rocky cave, its usual home […]"
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- 6 A (typically light) dusting of snow or ice (or dust, etc) (on ground, water, trees, etc).
"At sunrise there was a slight skiff of ice on some water in a bucket; […]"
- 1 To navigate in a skiff. transitive
- 2 To fall lightly or briefly, and lightly cover the ground (etc). dialectal
"We must be constantly alert to increased accident potentials in taxiing, takeoff, and landings on ice-glazed and snow-skiffed runways."
- 3 To cut (a tea bush) to maintain the plucking table.
"Skiffing is the lightest form of pruning involving as it does removal of a certain amount of growth above the previous pruning level."
Etymology
From Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.
From Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.
From Scots skiff (“light shower of rain or snow”), from skiff (“move lightly”); compare the derivative skiffle (whence English skiffle) and (English skift (“light dusting of snow”) from) Scots skift (“light shower of snow”), from skift (“move lightly”), perhaps related to shift/Old Norse skipta, or perhaps an onomatopoeic formation.
From Scots skiff (“light shower of rain or snow”), from skiff (“move lightly”); compare the derivative skiffle (whence English skiffle) and (English skift (“light dusting of snow”) from) Scots skift (“light shower of snow”), from skift (“move lightly”), perhaps related to shift/Old Norse skipta, or perhaps an onomatopoeic formation.
See also for "skiff"
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