From Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.
Meanings
A small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern.
As Hiro is entering their neighborhood, he sees men running down the undulating pontoon bridge that serves as the main street, carrying guns and knives. The local constabulary. More men of the same description emerge from the byways and skiffs and sampans, joining them. 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 385:
Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern. 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person.
I went alone into a Shepherd's boat,
A skiff that to a willow-tree was tied
Within a rocky cave, its usual home […] 1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:
Graceful old houses stand by the edge of the Great Ouse and gaze down at the houseboats, skiffs and motor-cruisers that moor there. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications, page 223, about Hemingford Grey:
el ακάτιο (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · ga scif (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · es esquife (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · bg скиф (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · sh skif (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · io bateleto (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · gl esquife (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · de Skiff (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · grc λέμβος (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · fr esquif (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · cs skif (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · ru я́лик (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · it lancia (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · fa زورق (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · el πριάρι (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · nl skiff (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · cy sgiff (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · cmn 舟 (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · grc σκαφίδιον (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · sh скиф (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · nl roeiboot (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · cs jednomístný člun (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · gd sgoth (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · la linter (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · uk я́лик (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · gl chalana (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · pdt Boot (nds) (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · ca esquif (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · fi jolla (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · la scapha (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · es batel (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · fr barque (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person) · it barca (Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person)
From Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.
From Scots skiff (“light shower of rain or snow”), from skiff (“move lightly”); compare the derivative skiffle (whence English skiffle) and (English skift (“light dusting of snow”) from) Scots skift (“light shower of snow”), from skift (“move lightly”), perhaps related to shift/Old Norse skipta, or perhaps an onomatopoeic formation.
Meanings
A light, fleeting shower of rain or snow, or gust of wind, etc.
A lashing skiff of rain sheeted across the desert, a gift from the heavens that cooled my skin and allowed some color to return to the world. It was enough to combat the smell of creosote, but not enough to sustain the land, so the desert lay back ... 2019, Craig Johnson, Depth of Winter: A Longmire Mystery, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 246:
Meadowlarks are in full voice, as are all manner of ducks, geese and gulls; with just a skiff of wind, sound travels a long way on mornings such as this. 2019 May 5, Brad Dokken, “More bust than boom for dwindling prairie chickens in Grand Forks County”, in Grand Forks Herald:
A little on again, off again, skiff of rain made the road slippery in spots. 2013, J. T. Brewer, Stewards of the White Circle: Calm Before the Storm:
A skiff of rain blew into the shed and the two men moved their chairs back.
A (typically light) dusting of snow or ice (or dust, etc) (on ground, water, trees, etc).
When I woke up this morning what did I see? A skiff of snow on the evergreen tree 2011, Albert C. Anderson, Thoughts of an Older Man: Poems as I See Life, page 249:
It will grow almost anywhere it can get a toehold; I once saw rye growing in a 0.4-inch (1 cm)-deep skiff of dust on a tractor blade. Farmers call these unplanned plants “volunteers,” and you can sometimes see them […] 2020, Lew Bryson, Whiskey Master Class: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, and More, Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 57:
... the shore of Pontchartrain, dripping blood heavily into the inland sea, and watching as a crystal path hurtled forward across the lake, six feet wide, as thin as the skiff of ice on a basin left in the window on the night of the first freeze of autumn. 2004, Orson Scott Card, The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Tor Books, →ISBN, page 116:
A skiff of new snow coats the ground. 2007, Diane Tullson, The Darwin Expedition, page 64:
The track was in the snow next to the line of rock brushed clean by the wind playing along the edge. Uriah saw it, too, and he knelt to examine the track. It was huge, five or six inches across, and clear in the skiff of snow. 2014, Gary D. Svee, Spirit Wolf:
The hoarfrost was heavy on the willow trees and there was a skiff of snow on the ice surface. 2019 October 30, Judy Kucharuk, “Skating in a winter wonderland”, in Alaska Highway News:
The next morning the men awoke to find a light skiff of snow on the ground. This event heightened the anxiety of the men in getting things finished on the house in preparation for departure. 2014, Glenn Crumb, Marvin Crumb, Crumbs Along the Trail, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 114:
At sunrise there was a slight skiff of ice on some water in a bucket; […] 1877, George Monro Grant, Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming's Expedition Through Canada in 1872, page 131:
Otherwise, whenever we woke up to a skiff of fresh snow in the garden, maybe a couple of times in a winter, we would run outside to make snowmen and snow forts, feeling alive in the cool snowy air. 2013, Steve Baldwin, Snow Tales and Powder Trails, page 102:
A thick skiff of snow lay over the world, and the big stars looked down on the weirdly wild scene. A long howl quivered through the night. It was quickly answered by a wild ululation from all directions. A big wolf—a fierce lobo of the Texas frontier—slipped out of the brush […] 2016, Glenn Dromgoole, West Texas Stories, ACU Press, →ISBN:
Later, she'd seen the snow on Saint Lawrence Island, the snow on the Olympics, the powder high in the Cascades, the Brooks Range, the Maine snow, the Rocky Mountain snow, the blowing around high plains snow, the deep snow at her home in Idaho, the hushed snow in the boreal forest of Northern Canada, the sea-driven snow at Prince Ruper and Ketchikan, Nome, Kotzebue, and Valdez, snow in the Arctic adhering to the now vanishing ice, the dry skiff of snow on the Alaskan tundra stitched by the silvery, needle-like oil pipeline. 2014, John Keeble, The Shadows of Owls: A Novel, page 362:
Bring a natural-looking touch of snow indoors by using your fingertips to lightly spread White Christmas Snow along the tops of the branches on your Christmas tree. To create a light skiff of snow on a six-foot noble fir, double the recipe. 1999, Sara Perry, Christmastime Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole FamilyA Holiday Celebrations Book, Chronicle Books, →ISBN:
There was a light skiff of snow on the ground. The air was filled with flying flakes, which stung his cheeks sharply. A little streak of red was beginning to show in the east, and somewhere, far away, he heard a chicken crow sleepily. 1899, Clara Vawter, Of Such is the Kingdom..., page 72:
A thick skiff of dust covered the contents of the room and revealed hundreds of tracks made by very large rodents. 2001, Dave Gilham, Hell 7 New York 0, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 53:
It was getting time to start trapping and Hawk was getting anxious. Fall was everywhere from the yellow aspens, to the skiff of ice on the beaver ponds in the morning. Elk could be heard bugling up and down the valley […] 2001, Wayde Bulow, Lure of the Mountains: The Frontier Life of a Mountain Man, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 176:
From Scots skiff (“light shower of rain or snow”), from skiff (“move lightly”); compare the derivative skiffle (whence English skiffle) and (English skift (“light dusting of snow”) from) Scots skift (“light shower of snow”), from skift (“move lightly”), perhaps related to shift/Old Norse skipta, or perhaps an onomatopoeic formation.
Meanings
(dialectal, of rain or snow) To fall lightly or briefly, and lightly cover the ground (etc).
He crossed a bridge to the other side, the road snaking in the green of fir and spruce, turning into a hill, a bit of snow skiffed in some places, then more, then everything coated, the evidence of a recent plow, the oil-and-gravel surface still ... 2000, Roy Parvin, In the Snow Forest, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 30:
In others, you could see all the way through to the basement stairway below. All the doors on the second floor had been torn from their hinges. The wind blew in through the empty windows, skiffing snow In one room a rotting mattress had been ... 2009, Kent Nerburn, The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey Through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows, New World Library, →ISBN, page 267:
Rain skiffed against the windows as she told Maeve about the possible link between Paddy Wallace, Mark O'Hanlon and Prontias Ryan. Maeve listened, nodding along. 2018, Claire McGowan, The Killing House (Paula Maguire 6): An explosive Irish crime thriller that will give you chills, Headline, →ISBN:
We must be constantly alert to increased accident potentials in taxiing, takeoff, and landings on ice-glazed and snow-skiffed runways. 1957, Combat Crew: Magazine of the Strategic Air Command, page 3:
The first year I stayed on 'til snow skiffed the highways & we had to burn the frost out of the ditchline with coal. 1986, Waves:
The sharp wind divides the dense fur of their winter coats while they survey the snow-skiffed ground of their silent town. 1981, United States Government Printing Office, Devils Tower, Government Printing Office, published 1985, →ISBN, page 50:
[…] two hours probing burnished lamps into rain-skiffed darkness, a digger burred, clanked […] 1998, David Anderson, A Tract of Time, editorips@usp.ac.fj, →ISBN, page 88:
“I don't mind waiting with you.” “No, it's all right.” “Really?” “Really.” Reluctantly, Paul said goodbye. Walking in the face of skiffing rain he was almost past the kebab shop before he realised it. “Donner kebab,” Paul said as if it was a refrain. 2009, John Morgan, Giddyblue, Chipmunkapublishing ltd, →ISBN, page 143:
1983, Roy McFadden, The Selected Roy McFadden, Dundonald, N. Ireland : Blackstaff Press
With glimpses through the skiffing rain / Of Donegal across the bay, / And Scotland when the early mist is blown, […]
An act of slightly pruning tea bushes, placing new leaves at a convenient height without removing much woody growth.
The sequence of the 3-year pruning cycle is light pruning; light skiff; and deep skiff[…] 2019, Mirza Hasanuzzaman, Agronomic Crops: Volume 1: Production Technologies, Springer, page 463:
In the fourth year, "light skiff" pruning removes just the uppermost growth. 2001, Piya Chatterjee, A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/Colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation, page 173:
To cut (a tea bush) to maintain the plucking table.
Skiffing is the lightest form of pruning involving as it does removal of a certain amount of growth above the previous pruning level. 2016, H. Panda, The Complete Book on Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea (2nd Revised Edition), page 202: