Meaning of skive | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Something very easy, where one can slack off without penalty.
   Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal
2. A rotating iron disk coated with oil and diamond dust used to polish the facets of a diamond.
3. An act of avoiding lessons or work.
   Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal
4. An angled cut or bevel at the edge of something.

Equivalents

Examples

“Mr Smith's history classes are a total skive.”

“I got the bus to school, and the driver gave me the eye, thinking I was on the skive, and I started to explain that there was something up with my head, but then I couldn't be bothered.”

“Another school skive! I only realised this when my dentist's receptionist told me to expect a fair wait till I could be seen.”

“But at least they preserved the idea that books were important and that reading and writing were more than just a skive for people too weedy to hack at one another with swords.”

“This accident sometimes occasions a flaw in the diamond, and always damages the skive, by tearing up its surface.”

“When the cut diamond is fixed in the dop, and that is adjusted in the tongs, the stone is placed upon the skive, which, being set in motion, if the diamond be examined in the course of from ten to fifteen minutes time, the facet will appear to have lost a part of the gray colour it had obtained from the process of cutting, and a brilliant lustre or polish will begin to appear, which is solely produced from the imbedded powder with which the surface of the skive is charged.”

“There is room on the skive for three or four Diamonds at the same time ; and, to give each its proper share of attention, is as much as one person can well manage.”

“There would be no need for medial heel skive and the heel cup can be of normal depth.”

“The angle and the depth of skives should be specified.”

“The skive may be gradually brought to a "feather edge" in such a manner that when turned in it may, together with the leather of the body, be of the substance of the original.”

CEFR level