skate

IPA/skeɪt/
KK[skˈet]IPA/skeɪt/

skate — noun

  • skatesingular
  • skatesplural

1. A boot fitted with a metal blade underneath the sole, worn to slide over ice, or

1.nounA2
Definition

A boot fitted with a metal blade underneath the sole, worn to slide over ice, or with small wheels for travelling on paved surfaces.

Example

Lauren laced up her skates and stepped carefully onto the frozen pond.

Femi bought a new pair of roller skates for his birthday celebration.

noun phrase: a pair of skates

Common collocations
  • a pair of skates
  • lace up your skates
  • blades of the skates
  • rent skates
Synonyms
  • ice skate

    specifically refers to skates with blades for ice

  • roller skate

    specifically refers to skates with wheels for hard surfaces

Usage Note

Skates (plural) is the usual way to refer to the equipment. A skate means one boot. The word is most commonly used in the plural form like shoes or boots.

Common Mistakes

I need to buy a new skate blade' (meaning the whole boot).
I need to buy new skates.
skate as a noun normally refers to the complete boot, not just the blade or wheels.

2. A saltwater fish that has a wide, flat body, a long thin tail, and broad fins, a

2.nounB1
Definition

A saltwater fish that has a wide, flat body, a long thin tail, and broad fins, and is caught for food in many regions.

Example

Talia ordered grilled skate with lemon and butter at the seaside restaurant.

food context: grilled skate

The fish market had fresh skate laid out on ice next to the cod.

Common collocations
  • grilled skate
  • skate wings
  • fresh skate
Synonyms
  • ray

    a broader category that includes skate and other flat-bodied fish

Usage Note

As food, skate is uncountable ('We had skate for dinner'). Referring to the live animal, it is countable ('A skate swam past').

skate — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Skate is the general-purpose word for moving on skates — it works for ice, roller skates, and in-line skates alike. Glide describes smooth, easy motion that does not require skates at all: a bird glides, a boat glides, or a skater glides across the ice. It focuses on the quality of movement rather than the equipment. Ice-skate narrows the meaning to skating on ice with blade skates. Rollerblade comes from a brand name and is informal; it specifically means skating with in-line skates on paved surfaces. In everyday conversation, 'skate' is the safest choice. Use 'ice-skate' when you want to stress the frozen surface, and 'rollerblade' for casual talk about in-line skating. For example: 'I skate every weekend at the park', but 'I prefer to ice-skate in winter and rollerblade in summer.'

skate ↗glide ↗ice-skate ↗rollerblade

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • a pair of skates

Prepositions

Etymology

DutchEnglish

The word for the equipment comes from the Dutch schaats, meaning 'ice skate'. It entered English in the 17th century. The name of the flat fish is much older, from Old Norse skata. The two words are not related — they happened to arrive in English from different languages and ended up with the same sound and spelling.