
Search Chambers
Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
skate1 noun 1 a boot with a device fitted to the sole for gliding smoothly over surfaces, either a steel blade for use on ice (ice skate) or a set of small wheels for use on wooden and other surfaces (roller skate). 2 the blade of an ice-skate. 3 a spell of skating. verb (skated, skating) intrans to move around on skates. skater noun. skating noun moving on skates. get one's skates on colloq to hurry up Come on, get your skates on or we'll be late! skate on thin ice to risk danger, harm or embarrassment, especially through lack of care or good judgement.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Dutch schaats, from French eschasse stilt, from German schake shank.
skate over something to hurry or rush over it We'll skate over this next chapter. skate round something to avoid dealing with something or considering (a difficulty, etc). |
skate1 noun 1 a boot with a device fitted to the sole for gliding smoothly over surfaces, either a steel blade for use on ice (ice skate) or a set of small wheels for use on wooden and other surfaces (roller skate). 2 the blade of an ice-skate. 3 a spell of skating. verb (skated, skating) intrans to move around on skates. skater noun. skating noun moving on skates. get one's skates on colloq to hurry up Come on, get your skates on or we'll be late! skate on thin ice to risk danger, harm or embarrassment, especially through lack of care or good judgement.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Dutch schaats, from French eschasse stilt, from German schake shank.
skate over something to hurry or rush over it We'll skate over this next chapter. skate round something to avoid dealing with something or considering (a difficulty, etc). |
skate1 noun 1 a boot with a device fitted to the sole for gliding smoothly over surfaces, either a steel blade for use on ice (ice skate) or a set of small wheels for use on wooden and other surfaces (roller skate). 2 the blade of an ice-skate. 3 a spell of skating. verb (skated, skating) intrans to move around on skates. skater noun. skating noun moving on skates. get one's skates on colloq to hurry up Come on, get your skates on or we'll be late! skate on thin ice to risk danger, harm or embarrassment, especially through lack of care or good judgement.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Dutch schaats, from French eschasse stilt, from German schake shank.
skate over something to hurry or rush over it We'll skate over this next chapter. skate round something to avoid dealing with something or considering (a difficulty, etc). |
-
The Chambers Dictionary (13th edition)
“Chambers is the one I keep at my right hand”- Philip Pullman.
The unrivalled dictionary for word lovers, now in its 13th edition.
-
The Chambers Thesaurus
The Chambers Thesaurus (4th Edition) is a veritable treasure-trove, including the greatest selection of alternative words and phrases available in an A to Z format. -
Chambers Biographical Dictionary
“Simply all you need to know about anyone” – Fay Weldon.
Thoroughly revised and updated for its 9th edition.




Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
Search Tip
A wildcard is a special character you can use to replace one or more characters in a word. There are two types of wildcard. The first is a question mark ?, which matches a single character. The second is an asterisk *, which matches zero or more characters. The two kinds of wildcard can be mixed in a single search.
View More Search Tips