skimming
part of speech
verb form (skim, skims, skimmed, skimming); noun (skimming)
meaning for a pupil
1) Skimming means reading something quickly to get the main idea, without reading every word. tree →
2) Skimming means removing something from the top of a liquid, like cream from milk or leaves from a pond. tree →
3) Skimming means moving quickly just above or across a surface: a bird skimming the water. tree →
4) Skimming stones is throwing flat stones so they bounce across water. tree →
5) (crime) Skimming is secretly copying bank card details with a hidden device, or secretly taking small amounts of money. tree →
sense in the lessons
Reading lessons: skimming (for the main idea) and scanning (for one fact) are two quick-reading skills. Cooking: skimming fat off soup. Outdoors: skimming stones on a lake (in the USA often called «skipping stones»). Safety: card skimming devices can be hidden on cash machines, so grown-ups cover the keypad and check the slot.
examples
- I am skimming the article to see what it is about. tree →
- Skimming is useful before you answer questions on a text. tree →
- Grandma was skimming the cream off the milk. tree →
- Swallows were skimming low over the river. tree →
- We spent the afternoon skimming stones at the beach. tree →
- My stone skimmed five times! tree →
- Police warned shoppers about card skimming at cash machines. tree →
- They were now so high, that a large ship beneath them looked like a white sea-gull skimming the waves. tree →
note
Spelling: skim doubles the m: skimmed, skimming. «Skimmed milk» (UK) = «skim milk» (US), milk with most fat removed. Skimming is not the same as scanning: skim = main idea, scan = find one detail.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «skimming» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.