▪ I. ˈskipping, vbl. n.1
[f. skip v.1]
1. The action of the verb skip, in literal senses.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 246/1 Hoppynge, or skyppynge, saltacio. 1590 P. Barrough Physick i. xxxviii. (1639) 60 The diseases which come by skipping in of stones or chips..into the Eyes. 1611 Cotgr., Resiliment, a leaping, skipping, rebounding, backe. 1800 Infant's Library IX. 7 Skipping. This is a very healthful play in winter; it will make you nice and warm in frosty weather. 1844 Hood Skipping i, Little Children skip,..All are fond of skipping! |
| attrib. 1736 Ainsworth s.v., In a skipping posture, saltabundus. 1894 Daily News 14 June 6/4 Among the ‘sports’ for girls being a skipping contest and various races. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 827 Her first attack cut short prolonged and severe skipping effort. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ii. 38 Norman Douglas gives it as a skipping rhyme in ‘London Street Games’. 1977 N. Freeling Gadget ii. 70 How many skipping rhymes do I know? Sixty? A hundred? |
2. The action of skipping, in transferred senses.
| 1560 1st Bk. Discipline xi. (1836) 69 This skipping and divagation from place to place of Scripture. 1597 T. Morley Introd. Mus. 7, I know not how to tune them [sc. notes] by reason of their skipping. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Contents, Stirring of Ghost is like skipping of thought. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet II. i. 15 Such as are addicted to the laudable practice of skipping. 1863 Reader 5 Dec. 660 We remember, of course, that skipping is fair play in novel-reading. 1885 Manch. Exam. 22 July 3/2 The reader..can always have recourse to judicious skipping. |
▪ II. ˈskipping, vbl. n.2
Also skepping.
[f. skip v.2]
In sugar-making: (see quots.). Also attrib.
| 1824 Mech. Mag. No. 60. 58 Whether the new boiler can improve the grain of inferior West Indian sugars. Two charges, or skeppings, as they are technically termed, were run off in 13½ minutes. 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. II. 196 Of this solution about fifty gallons, called a skipping, are put into a copper pan. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1202 Each finished charge is called a skipping, because it is skipped or laded out. 1860 Tomlinson Arts & Manuf. Ser. ii. Sugar 16 Sometimes the last and largest copper contains a skipping-teach, a smaller vessel of the same shape with a valve at the bottom worked by a handle. |
▪ III. ˈskipping, ppl. a.
[f. skip v.1]
1. That skips. Also spec. in skipping stickleback (see quot. 1803).
| 1560 Bible (Genevan) Wisdom xvii. 19 The running of skipping beastes, that colde not be sene. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 60 The skipping King hee ambled vp and downe. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv, Hee's a good skipping swaggerer. 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac. (1860) 81 A designe to make your skipping suiters hop away and leave you. 1733 Fielding Intriguing Chambermaid i. v, Indeed, with your little, pert, skipping beaux, I don't know what may happen. 1791 Cowper Yardley Oak 25 A skipping deer, With pointed hoof dibbling the glebe. 1803 Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. 609 Skipping Stickleback, Gasterosteus Saltatrix... Stickleback with eight dorsal spines connected by a membrane. 1893 F. Adams New Egypt 95 A she-goat..with her two little black fantastically-skipping kids. |
| transf. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ii. 196 Allay with some cold drops of modestie Thy skipping spirit. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mell. i. Wks. 1856 I. 13 A short finger, and a naked chinne, A skipping eye. 1801 Busby Dict. Mus., Skipping-Notes, notes which do not proceed by conjoint degrees, nor in any regular course, but which lay at awkward and unexpected distances from each other. |
2. Characterized by skips.
| 1596 Edw. III, i. ii, In their vild, vnseuill, skipping giggs. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 172 An æthiopian..who..doth dance in their processions with a skipping motion. |