Green’s Dictionary of Slang

skivver v.

[? dial. skive, to move quickly]

(US black) to wander around.

[US]Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1002: So Jelly got into his zoot suit with the reet pleats and got out to skivver around and do himself some good.