Skip

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /skɪp/

Definitions

1. To proceed by taking hops or bounds while leaving out certain steps or elements, often in a cheerful manner, or to bypass specific tasks or items altogether
2. To move with a buoyant gait by springing off the ground while simultaneously disregarding parts of a sequence or process, conveying a sense of joy or playfulness
3. To jump lightly from one point to another, omitting intermediate steps or parts for efficiency or ease, or to deliberately avoid or neglect something

Etymology: The verb "skip" is one of those English words that seems too simple to have a story, yet it arrived from the North. It came into Middle English from Old Norse-influenced speech, and it descends from a Proto-Germanic verb meaning roughly "to push or move repeatedly," which is also the ancestor of the English "shove." The sense of leaping lightly over something grew out of that quick, bouncing motion, and the idea of skipping a turn or a meal came later as a figurative extension of the same notion of hopping past something. The noun, and the sense of skipping over parts of a text or a lesson, developed along the same lines. Some connect the "skimp" that once meant to mock to this family, though that link remains debated. A separate "skip" arrived from the Middle Dutch and Low German "schipper," meaning captain or seaman, and it is unrelated to the leaping verb. Its modern sense of a large container for rubbish is a later development in a different area of English.

Synonyms: leap, jump, omit, pass, bounce

Antonyms: stop, continue, proceed, remain, stay