skive /ˈskaɪv/noun 4verb 2forms 3phrases 1 noun4 •(UK, informal) An act of avoiding lessons or work.I got the bus to school, and the driver gave me the eye, thinking I was on the skive, and I started to explain that there was something up with my head, but then I couldn't be bothered. — 2007 •(UK, informal) Something very easy, where one can slack off without penalty.Mr Smith's history classes are a total skive. •An angled cut or bevel at the edge of something.There would be no need for medial heel skive and the heel cup can be of normal depth. — 2004 •A rotating iron disk coated with oil and diamond dust used to polish the facets of a diamond.This accident sometimes occasions a flaw in the diamond, and always damages the skive, by tearing up its surface. — 1820 verb2 •(UK, informal) To avoid one's lessons or work (chiefly at school or university); shirk.Truancies, rather bewilderingly, have risen among children on the programme; the government hopes this is because children skive more as they get older. — 2006 •To pare or shave off the rough or thick parts of.In the leather industry skive has another connotation, concerning splitting the skin perpendicularly to its thickness into thin layers. Imagine now being able to skive at the nanoscale. — 2009 formsskived · skiving · skives Phrases with skive skive offTo skive; to play truant; to slack off.
