skid
pronunciation
How to pronounce skid in British English:
UK [skɪd]
How to pronounce skid in American English:
US [skɪd]
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- Noun:
- one of a pair of planks used to make a track for rolling or sliding objects
- a restraint provided when the brake linings are moved hydraulically against the brake drum to retard the wheel's rotation
- an unexpected slide
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- Verb:
- slide without control
- elevate onto skids
- apply a brake or skid to
- move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner
Word Origin
- skid (n.)
- c. 1600, "beam or plank on which something rests," especially on which something heavy can be rolled from place to place (1782), of uncertain origin, probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse skið "stick of wood" (see ski (n.)). As "a sliding along" from 1890; specifically of motor vehicles from 1903. Skid-mark is from 1914. In the timber regions of the American West, skids laid down one after another to form a road were "a poor thing for pleasure walks, but admirably adapted for hauling logs on the ground with a minimum of friction" ["Out West" magazine, October 1903]. A skid as something used to facilitate downhill motion led to figurative phrases such as hit the skids "go into rapid decline" (1909), and see skid row.
- skid (v.)
- 1670s, "apply a skid to (a wheel, to keep it from turning)," from skid (n.). Meaning "slide along" first recorded 1838; extended sense of "slip sideways" (on a wet road, etc.) first recorded 1884. The original notion is of a block of wood for stopping a wheel; the modern senses are from the notion of a wheel slipping when blocked from revolving.
Example
- 1. Now a new tyre could detect when a car is about to skid and switch on safety systems in time to prevent it .
- 2. It reckons the most promising is electronic stability-control , which can improve a car 's handling by detecting and helping to prevent a skid .
- 3. Every weekend in the quasi - urban wasteland of the chaobai river outside beijing , chinese yuppies congregate to skid their sports utility vehicles around the dry river bed .
- 4. Vehicle skid control systems can reduce understeer or oversteer , but they cannot change the laws of physics .
- 5. Until then , well , keep telling junior that if he spins around really fast , then stops , his face will skid around to the back of his head .