skid, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

skid v.

also skids

1. to leave, to go; thus skidding n.

1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 May. 9/2: Well, you can ‘get’ this time, Mary [...] But next time you grip those spikes it means six square months. Paste that in your hat, Mary; and now skid.
1919		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 11 Mar. [synd. col.] The abrupt skidding of the war left the tailors with too much cloth.
1920		Literary Digest 22 May 120: Time was when the unsuccessful man merely failed, but these days, in a world scurrying about in motor-cars and breathing gasoline, he is said to ‘skid’ .
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 211: He refused to skid. It seems he’s in love with our parlourmaid.

2. (US) to blunder, to make a mistake, to decline; thus skidsing adj.

1937		G. Frankau More of Us 67: Next morning woke a damsel heavy-lidded To wonder had she not, or had she, skidded .
1971		T. Rhone Smile Orange I i: You skid! You skid!
1976		A. Salkey Come Home, Malcolm Heartland 197: Malcolm, you’re the exception I made and I’m skidding because of it, dead ace.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 101: He sighted and rescued the skids-ing career of a once-famous chanteuse.

3. (US black) to cause trouble for, to vilify.

1935

Ted Yates This Is New York 12 Apr. [synd. col.] S’funny how we columnists skid eech [sic] other.

4. (US black) to dance.

1948

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 10 Jan. 17: When you ‘Skid’ you’re dancing.

5. (US Und.) to get rid of.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 195/2: Skid. To get rid of. ‘Skid them plates (printing plates) and burn the boodle (counterfeit money). Nate was collared (arrested) by the feds (Federal agents).’.

6. (UK black) to drive recklessly.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Skid - drive recklessly.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

skid artist (n.) [the speedily driven car skids around corners + -artist sfx]

(UK Und.) an expert driver of a get-away car, used on robberies.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 201: Skid artist Get-away car driver.

skid-bid (n.) [SE skid, i.e. off the ‘straight and narrow’ + bid n.²]

(US prison) a term in prison or in juvenile detention.

1993		Lerner et al. Dict. of Today’s Words.
a.2003		Majik O’ the Misty Highlands ‘Greetings from the Hotel Graybar’ on Revelwood.org 🌐 Some time later our witless hero was picked up on a totally unrelated charge and sentenced to six months in a county jail. Unwilling to sit quietly and do his ‘skid bid’ he told the prosecutor’s office that if they let him go he would give them information on an unsolved murder.

skid grease (n.) (also skid)

(US) butter, occas. margarine (see cite 1976).

1921		DN V 110: Skid [...] Butter. In hot weather, butter looks like grease used on skidways. Lumbercamp in Sierra County [CA].
1925		J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 137/2: Chase down the punk and the skidgrease (bread and butter).
1936		H.W. Bentley ‘Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker’ in AS XI:1 45: SKID GREASE. Butter.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1976		(con. WW1) Idaho Free Press (Nampa, ID) 26 Jan. 9/4: They served us [...] sea green peas and marble beans. Skid grease called oleomargarine.

skidlid (n.) [lid n.]

(also skidlid helmet) a crash helmet, thus skid-lidded, wearing a helmet.

1953		Lancs Eve. Post 13 Nov. 3/7: Look! Free Skid-lid [...] with all used machines sold for cash.
1957		Eastbourne Gaz. 6 Mar. 4/2: For 49s. 6d. I was fitted out with a neat black ‘skid-lid’.
1962		Police Jrnl 35 414: The safety requirement to use an efficient ‘skid-lid’ could not reasonably be described as an infringement of personal liberty.
1968		Current Sl. II:4 9: Skid lid, n. Motorcyclist’s helmet.
1972		Stage (London) 17 Aug. 83/3: [O]range skid-lidded motor-cyclists.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 103: Their skidlid helmets are white and their uniforms green.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Grene leather, grene leggynges, grene skid–lidde.
2011		J. Johnson Willpower to Live 171: ‘The good old brain bucket!’. I said ‘pardon?’ ‘Yeah! The helmet your wearing. We call them SKID LIDS around here! Skid lid or brain bucket!’.

skid magazine (n.)

a pornographic magazine.

2000

M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 51: Well, that’s what it said in the skid magazines he had under his mattress anyway.

skid mark

see separate entries.

skid row

see separate entries.

In phrases

skid-pipe plumber (n.)

a male homosexual.

2002

The-House-of-Love.org ‘Gay Men Names’ 🌐 skid-pipe plumber • skin-diver.

skid the rig of (v.) [fig. use of oil rig jargon skid the rig, to move a derrick]

(US) to cuckold.

1974

(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 9: Mrs. Simmons, who had skidded the rig of her own daughter to live for a year with her daughter’s young black common-law husband.