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skid

nounverbnounnounverbnounattested in dialogue

  • //ˈskɪd//
  • /[ˈskɪd]/

An out-of-control sliding motion as would result from applying the brakes too hard in a car or other vehicle.

noun

  1. 1

    An out-of-control sliding motion as would result from applying the brakes too hard in a car or other vehicle.

    Near-synonyms: wheelslide, sideslip

    Just before hitting the guardrail the driver regained control and pulled out of the skid.

    The brakes grabbed and the car went into a skid.

  2. 2

    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.

  3. 3

    A hook attached to a chain, used for the same purpose.

  4. 4

    A piece of timber or other material used as a support, or to receive pressure. A runner of a sled.

    In the hours before daylight he sharpened the skids and tightened the lashings to prepare for the long dogsled journey.

  5. 5

    A piece of timber or other material used as a support, or to receive pressure. A ski-shaped runner or supporting surface as found on a helicopter or other aircraft in place of wheels.

    Due to frequent arctic travel, the plane was equipped with long skids for snow and ice landings.

  6. 6

    A piece of timber or other material used as a support, or to receive pressure. A basic platform for the storage and transport of goods, machinery or equipment, later developed into the pallet.

    He unloaded six skids of boxes from the truck.

  7. 7

    A piece of timber or other material used as a support, or to receive pressure. A pallet.

  8. 8

    A piece of timber or other material used as a support, or to receive pressure. One of a pair of horizontal rails or timbers for supporting anything, such as a boat or barrel.

    His head was away up in the shadows of lifeboats that stood on skids above the deck.

    If the boat had been further out, we could not get to work at the wheel without beaching her further up; or either dry docking her or putting her on skids.

  9. 9

    A banked sideslip where the aircraft's nose is yawed towards the low wing, often due to excessive rudder input.

  10. 10

    A losing streak.

    The team snapped a 3-game skid with a win over their biggest rival.

Etymology

From Middle English *skid, from Old Norse skíð (“a billet of wood, a beam or plank on which something rests”), from Proto-Germanic *skīdą (“log, clapboard”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey-t-, *skey- (“to split, divide, separate”). Cognate with English shide, from Middle English schyd, schyde, schide (“plank, beam”), German Scheit (“piece of wood, log”). Doublet of ski.

verb

  1. 1

    (of a wheel, sled runner, or vehicle tracks) To slide along the ground, without the rotary motion that wheels or tracks would normally have.

  2. 2

    To slide in an uncontrolled manner as in a car with the brakes applied too hard, the wheels sliding with limited spinning.

    They skidded around the corner and accelerated up the street.

  3. 3

    To operate an aircraft in a banked sideslip with the nose yawed towards the low wing.

    Don't use excessive rudder when turning, especially at low airspeed, as this causes your plane to skid through the turn, which can cause you to very rapidly enter a spin if the inner wing stalls.

    Because of the jammed ailerons, the pilot had to use careful rudder inputs to skid his plane in order to turn it so he could get lined up with the runway.

  4. 4

    To protect or support with a skid or skids.

  5. 5

    To cause to move on skids.

  6. 6

    To check or halt (wagon wheels, etc.) with a skid.

    The horses stopped to breathe again, and the guard got down to skid the wheel for the descent, and open the coach-door to let the passengers in

noun

  1. 1

    A stepchild.

Etymology

Shortening of stepkid.

noun

  1. 1

    A script kiddie.

    […] it is something that differentiates an elite hacker from skids (script kiddies).

Etymology

Shortened from script kiddie, probably via skiddie.

verb

  1. 1

    To steal or copy, especially computer code.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA sovereign (old coin).

Forms

plural
skids
past tense
skidded
past participle
skidded
present participle
skidding
third person singular
skids
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).