skate Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun sports equipment that is worn on the feet to enable the wearer to glide along and to be propelled by the alternate actions of the legs
noun large edible rays having a long snout and thick tail with pectoral fins continuous with the head; swim by undulating the edges of the pectoral fins
verb move along on skates
- The Dutch often skate along the canals in winter

D. schaats. Cf. Scatches.

A metallic runner with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, -- made to be fastened under the foot, and used for moving rapidly on ice.
Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep, On sounding skates, a thousand different ways, In circling poise, swift as the winds, along, The then gay land is maddended all to joy. Thomson.

imperfect & past participle Skated; present participle & verbal noun Skating

Icel. skata; cf. Prov. G. schatten, meer-schatten, L. squatus, squatina, and E. shad.

(Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of large, flat elasmobranch fishes of the genus Raia, having a long, slender tail, terminated by a small caudal fin. The pectoral fins, which are large and broad and united to the sides of the body and head, give a somewhat rhombic form to these fishes. The skin is more or less spinose. ✍ Some of the species are used for food, as the European blue or gray skate (Raia batis), which sometimes weighs nearly 200 pounds. The American smooth, or barn-door, skate (R. lævis) is also a large species, often becoming three or four feet across. The common spiny skate (R. erinacea) is much smaller.