ice-skate

ice-skate — noun

IPA/ˈaɪs skeɪt/
IPA/ˈaɪs skeɪt/

1. a boot fitted with a narrow strip of metal along the bottom, so the wearer can g

1.nounB1
Definition

a boot fitted with a narrow strip of metal along the bottom, so the wearer can glide quickly across a frozen surface

Example

Meera laced up her white ice skates at the edge of the frozen pond.

countable: a pair of ice skates

Takeshi sharpened his ice skates the night before the school competition.

collocation: sharpen ice skates

Common collocations
  • a pair of ice skates
  • lace up ice skates
  • sharpen ice skates
  • rent ice skates
Synonyms
  • skates

    shorter informal form; understood as ice skates from context

  • figure skates

    specific type with a toe pick at the front, used for figure skating

  • hockey skates

    specific type with a rounded blade and no toe pick, used for ice hockey

Antonyms
  • roller skates

    wheeled footwear for hard surfaces, not ice

  • inline skates

    wheels arranged in a single line; also for hard ground, not ice

Grammar Patterns

a pair of ice skates

Usage Note

Almost always plural in everyday use — a single skate is rarely referenced on its own; speakers say 'a pair of ice skates' or just 'her ice skates'.

Common Mistakes

I bought an ice-skate yesterday.
I bought a pair of ice skates yesterday.
skates come and are worn in pairs; the singular is unusual outside technical contexts.
The ice-skate is on the floor.
The ice skates are on the floor.
use the plural even when one item is visible, because the noun is treated as a paired object.

ice-skate — verb

IPA/ˈaɪs.skeɪt/
IPA/ˈaɪs.skeɪt/

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four verbs describe gliding on bladed or wheeled footwear, but the surface and style differ. 'Ice-skate' specifies that the surface is frozen water — a lake, pond, or rink — and is the clearest choice when the context might otherwise suggest wheels. 'Skate' is the most general form: in winter or near a rink it usually means ice-skating, but in summer or near a park it can mean roller-skating or skateboarding, so context matters. 'Figure-skate' narrows the picture further to the artistic discipline involving jumps, spins, and choreography, often performed in competition. 'Roller-skate', by contrast, only refers to wheeled skating on hard ground. Compare: 'Camila ice-skated on the frozen lake' (ice, clear), 'Camila went skating' (ambiguous without context), 'Camila figure-skates in competitions' (artistic discipline), 'Camila roller-skated through the park' (wheels, pavement).

ice-skate ↗skate ↗figure-skateroller-skate

Common collocations

Nouns

  • ice skates
  • ice-skating lesson
  • ice-skating rink

Adverbs

Phrases

  • go ice-skating
  • learn to ice-skate
  • a pair of ice skates

Prepositions

  • on (a lake / pond / rink)
  • at (the rink)
  • across (the ice)

Etymology

Old EnglishDutchEnglish

A compound of 'ice' (Old English 'īs', a Germanic word for frozen water) and 'skate' in its sense of a bladed shoe. This 'skate' is unrelated to the fish of the same name; it entered English from Dutch 'schaats' in the 17th century, after English-speaking travellers saw the Dutch crossing frozen canals on bladed footwear. The hyphenated compound 'ice-skate' developed once wheeled roller skates also appeared, so writers needed to specify which surface was meant.

First known use

1914

1914, in the meaning defined above Noun