Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Skate?

\Skate\, n. [D. schaats. Cf. {Scatches}.] A metallic runner with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, -- made to be fastened under the foot, and used for moving rapidly on ice. Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep, On sounding skates, a thousand different ways, In circling poise, swift as the winds, along, The then gay land is maddened all to joy. --Thomson. {Roller skate}. See under {Roller}.
\Skate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Skated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Skating}.] To move on skates.
\Skate\, n. [Icel. skata; cf. Prov. G. schatten, meer-schatten, L. squatus, squatina, and E. shad.] (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of large, flat elasmobranch fishes of the genus {Raia}, having a long, slender tail, terminated by a small caudal fin. The pectoral fins, which are large and broad and united to the sides of the body and head, give a somewhat rhombic form to these fishes. The skin is more or less spinose. Note: Some of the species are used for food, as the European blue or gray skate ({Raia batis}), which sometimes weighs nearly 200 pounds. The American smooth, or barn-door, skate ({R. l[ae]vis}) is also a large species, often becoming three or four feet across. The common spiny skate ({R. erinacea}) is much smaller. {Skate's egg}. See {Sea purse}. {Skate sucker}, any marine leech of the genus {Pontobdella}, parasitic on skates.