SKID • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Skid

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/skɪd/ Listen

noun

Skid n. (Written also skeed)

1.

A shoe or clog, as of iron, attached to a chain, and placed under the wheel of a wagon to prevent its turning when descending a steep hill; a drag; a skidpan; also, by extension, a hook attached to a chain, and used for the same purpose.

2.

A piece of timber used as a support, or to receive pressure. Specifically:

(a)

pl. (Naut.) Large fenders hung over a vessel's side to protect it in handling a cargo.

(b)

One of a pair of timbers or bars, usually arranged so as to form an inclined plane, as form a wagon to a door, along which anything is moved by sliding or rolling.

(c)

One of a pair of horizontal rails or timbers for supporting anything, as a boat, a barrel, etc.

3.

(Aeronautics) A runner (one or two) under some flying machines, used for landing.

4.

A low movable platform for supporting heavy items to be transported, typically of two layers, and having a space between the layers into which the fork of a fork lift can be inserted; it is used to conveniently transport heavy objects by means of a fork lift; a skid without wheels is the same as a pallet.

5.

pl. Declining fortunes; a movement toward defeat or downfall; used mostly in the phrase on the skids and hit the skids.

6.

Act of skidding; called also side slip.

verb

Skid v. t. (past & past part. skidded; pres. part. skidding)

1.

To protect or support with a skid or skids; also, to cause to move on skids.

2.

To check with a skid, as wagon wheels.

3.

(Forestry) To haul (logs) to a skid and load on a skidway.

Skid v. i.

1.

To slide without rotating; said of a wheel held from turning while the vehicle moves onward.

2.

To fail to grip the roadway; specif., to slip sideways on the road; to side-slip; said esp. of a cycle or automobile.

See images of 'Skid'

Etymology of 'Skid'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Skid" Quotes from Famous Books

... one, and, as the length of the race was five miles it would be necessary to make ten laps or circuits. The course was in the shape of an ellipse, with rather sharp turns at either end, where the contestants, if they did not want a spill, or a bad skid, must slacken their pace. It was on the two straight stretches that speed ...

— The Motor Boys on the Pacific • Clarence Young

... bridge at the foot of a hill, and we were very lucky to escape an accident. I will say for the chauffeur that while, as a farmer, he would never get far, as a driver he knew his business. One slight skid and we stopped short, "never to go again," like grandfather's clock. It resulted in our having to be towed backwards to the nearest garage, while the chauffeur jumped on a passing motor bound for Pasadena, and was snatched from my sight like Elijah in the chariot—he ...

— The Smiling Hill-Top - And Other California Sketches • Julia M. Sloane

... any trouble from the cats is one evening when Pop comes home and the two kittens skid down the hall between his legs, with Cat after them. He scales his hat at the lot of them and roars down the hall to me, "Hey, Davey! When are you getting rid of these cats? I'm not fixing to start an ...

— It's like this, cat • Emily Neville

... and there by the offtake of narrow ravines, filled with forest trees. There was a pause while the chains on the rear wheels were supplemented by others in front, for there must be no danger of a skid. And another pause, where the road slanted perilously toward the brink of the chasm, and caution dictated that the Chancellor alight, and make a hundred feet or ...

— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... you! So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do—hoo! hoo! Jest send in your Chief an' surrender— it's worse if you fights or you runs: You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from ...

— Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling

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