skate v.1
1. (also do a skate, skate off, skeet, skeete, skite) to rush off, to leave at speed, to go quickly.
Charcoal Sketches (1865) 97: You must skeete, even if you have to cut high-dutchers with your irons loose. | ||
Waggeries and Vagaries 77: Skeet, every daddy’s babby of you. | ||
Chimmie Fadden Explains 20: Me business was t’ skate up t’ de lady, kneel down, grab her hand. | ||
Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 62: Get your rags on, skate down there an’ holler out he’s mugged. | ||
Varmint 225: I always do that with my fingers when I’m skating down the stairs. | ||
DN III:viii 589: skite, v. To hurry. ‘You skite, now.’. | ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in||
(con. 1908) Adventures of a Woman Hobo 83: You might be able to skate right through to Frisco in a week. | ||
None But the Lonely Heart 115: You been skating round the tiles again, have you? | ||
I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 239/1: skate – get going. | ||
Lowlife (2001) 174: You have a marvellous dog. He is going to skate home. You know his form, he always breaks away fast. | ||
Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 68: [The bus] spins around the Centre point Synagogue and skates down Holborn. | East in||
Muvver Tongue 71: The other day I picked up a quick half-bar through backing a good thing in the National. It skated home. | ||
Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 103/1: skate phr. do a skate to disappear hurriedly; aka skate off. | ||
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. | ||
Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Skate - run away. | (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at
2. (orig. US black) to get away with anything, to shirk one’s responsibilities, esp. to avoid paying one’s debts.
‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | ||
Spook who Sat by the Door (1972) 17: He had been an athlete who had skated through college on his fame. | ||
(con. c.1970) Short Timers (1985) 11: Only shitbirds try to avoid work, only shitbirds try to skate. | ||
Lowspeak 129: Skate – to go through a ticket barrier on the underground without paying. | ||
Homicide (1993) 331: They could both skate any controversy by sacrificing Worden. | ||
Rope Burns 202: No racist white man muhfuh born of a woman would dis him and skate. | ||
The Force [ebook] A dealer talks to you for money or drugs, to skate on a charge or to fuck a rival dealer. | ||
‘What Pluckery Is This?’ T. Pluck 29 Sept. 🌐 These schmucks [...] have skated on paying their fair share of taxes for far too long. |
3. to perform or make something, e.g. an essay or a meal, quickly.
Current Sl. I:3 7/1: Skate, v. To hurry [...] I skated through that test. | ||
Campus Sl. Mar. 6: skate [...] to put little effort into something. | ||
Drylongso 110: You can skate along if you’re paddy [...] but with us it’s the reverend thing or your behind. |
4. (US prison) to be in a forbidden area of the prison.
Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Skating: Being in an area of the prison you are not allowed, especially another housing unit. Being ‘out of place’. |
In derivatives
(US) one who runs off (and escapes paying a bill).
New York Day by Day 28 Jan. [synd. col.] There are many prominent skaters in the Tenderloin, but their skating is of quite a different variety [i.e. to ice-skating], although they are quite proficient in weaving in and out of swinging doors. |
In phrases
to take advantage of.
(con. 1970) 13th Valley (1983) 286: That slimy prick’s skatin’ on us. |
see sense 1 above.