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# skimming

«skimming» in Mova's school dictionary: **reading something quickly to get the main idea, without…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb form (skim, skims, skimmed, skimming); noun (skimming)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Skimming means reading something quickly to get the main idea, without reading every word. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#m1)

2) Skimming means removing something from the top of a liquid, like cream from milk or leaves from a pond. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#m2)

3) Skimming means moving quickly just above or across a surface: a bird skimming the water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#m3)

4) Skimming stones is throwing flat stones so they bounce across water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#m4)

5) (crime) Skimming is secretly copying bank card details with a hidden device, or secretly taking small amounts of money. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

Reading lessons: skimming (for the main idea) and scanning (for one fact) are two quick-reading skills. Cooking: skimming fat off soup. Outdoors: skimming stones on a lake (in the USA often called «skipping stones»). Safety: card skimming devices can be hidden on cash machines, so grown-ups cover the keypad and check the slot.

### examples

- I am skimming the article to see what it is about. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x1)
- Skimming is useful before you answer questions on a text. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x2)
- Grandma was skimming the cream off the milk. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x3)
- Swallows were skimming low over the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x4)
- We spent the afternoon skimming stones at the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x5)
- My stone skimmed five times! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x6)
- Police warned shoppers about card skimming at cash machines. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x7)
- They were now so high, that a large ship beneath them looked like a white sea-gull skimming the waves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/#x8)

### note

Spelling: skim doubles the m: skimmed, skimming. «Skimmed milk» (UK) = «skim milk» (US), milk with most fat removed. Skimming is not the same as scanning: skim = main idea, scan = find one detail.

### In the corpora

- [Skimming means reading quickly to get the general idea of a text.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/17-retrieval-finding-the-answer-in-the-text/17/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «skimming» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/skimming/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.