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266 SKI 
SKILLINGTON, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire; 
3 miles north-west of Colsterworth. 
SKILLO, or Damala, a cape in Greece, on the east coast 
of the Morea. Lat. 37.26. N. long. 23. 36. E. 
To SKIM, v. a. [escutne , Fr.] To clear off from the 
upper part, by passing a vessel a little below the surface. 
My coz Tom, or his coz Mary, 
Whp holds the plough or skim the dairy, 
My fav’rite books and pictures sell. Prior. 
To take by skimming. 
She boils in kettles must, of wine, and skims 
With leaves the dregs that overflow the brims. Pry den. 
To brush the surface slightly; to pass very near the surface. 
Nor seeks in air her humble flight to raise. 
Content to skim the surface of the seas. Dryden. 
To cover superficially. Improper. Perhaps originally 
skin. 
Dangerous flats in secret ambush lay, 
Where the false tides skim o ! er the cover’d land, 
And seamen with dissembled depths betray. Pry den. 
To SKIM, v. n. To pass lightly; to glide along. 
When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw, 
The line too labours, and the words move slow; 
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain. 
Flies o’er the unbending com, and skims along the main. 
Pope. 
SKIM, s. Scum ; refuse.—Although Philip took delight 
in this skim of men, [gross flatterers,] yet could they never 
draw him by their charming to incur those vices which his 
son ran into. Bryskett. 
SKl'MBLESKAMBLE, adj. [A cant word formed by 
reduplication from scamble.'] Wandering; wild. 
A couching lion and a ramping cat, 
And such a deal of skimbleskamble stuff, 
As puts me from my faith. Shakspearc. 
SKIM-COULTER, in Agriculture, a sort of coulter, in¬ 
vented by Mr. Ducket, for paring off the surface of coarse 
grass or other lands, and placing it in the bottom of the 
furrow, so as to be fully covered and secured. 
SKI'MMER, s. A shallow vessel with which the scum is 
taken off.—Wash your wheat in three or four waters, stirring 
it round ; and with a skimmer, each time, take off the light. 
Mortimer. —One who skims over a book or subject: a 
ludicrous word.—There are different degrees of skimmers; 
first, he who goes no farther than the title page; secondly, 
he who proceeds to the contents and index, &c. Skelton. 
SKIMMIA. [A Japanese vernacular name from Ksemp- 
fer.] in Botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, order mono- 
gynia.—Generic Character. Calyx: perianth one-leafed, 
very small, permanent, almost four-parted to the base: seg¬ 
ments ovate, acute. Corolla: petals four, ovate, concave, 
minute. Stamina : filaments four, very short. Pistil: germ 
superior; style single. Pericarp: berry ovate, umbilicate, 
indistinctly grooved, smooth, farinaceous-pulpy within, four- 
valved. Seeds four, subtrigonal or externally convex, ob¬ 
long, white. Perianth seldom five-parted.— Essential 
Character. Calyx four-parted. Petals four, concave. 
Berry four-seeded. 
1. Skimmia Japonica. Stem shrubby, erect, smooth/ 
Branches alternate, four cornered. Leaves at the ends of 
the branches alternate, frequent, oblong, waved, entire, 
obscurely crenate towards the top, erect, the margin bent 
back, a finger’s length, above green and wrinkled, beneath 
pale and dotted, evergreen with an aromatic taste. Petioles 
semicylindrical, thickish, short. Flowers terminating, in 
panicles. Peduncles round, thickening, short.-—-Native of 
Japan, near Nagasaki and elsewhere. The fruit is ripe in 
December. 
SKIM-MILK, s. Milk from which the cream has been 
taken.—Then cheese was brought: says Slouch, this e’en 
shall roll; this is skim-millc, and therefore it shall go. King. 
SKI'MMINGTON. To ride skimmington is a vulgar 
S K I 
phrase, which means a hind of burlesque procession in ridi¬ 
cule of a man who suffers himself to be beat by his wife. 
In the north, riding the stang has a similar meaning. See 
Stang. Skimmington has been supposed to be the name 
of some notorious scold of the olden time. See Brand's 
Pop. Antiq. 
When the young people ride the skimmington, 
There is a general trembling in a town : 
Not only he, for whom the person rides. 
Suffers, but they sweep other doors besides; 
And by that hieroglyphick does appear, 
1’hat the good woman is the master there T King. 
SKIN, s. [skind, Danish.] The natural covering of the 
flesh. It consists of the cuticle, outward skin or scarf skin, 
which is thin and insensible, and the cutis or inner skin, 
extremely sensible. 
The priest on skins of off’rings takes his ease, 
And nightly visions in his slumber sees. Pry den. 
Hide; pelt; that which is taken from animals to make 
parchnaent or leather. 
On whose top he strow’d 
O wilde goat’s shaggy skin ; and then bestow’d 
His own couch on it. Chapman , 
The body ; the person: in ludicrous speech.—We meet 
with many of these dangerous civilities, wherein ’tis hard for 
a man to save both his skin and his credit. L'Estrange .— 
A husk. 
To SKIN, v. a. To flay ; to strip or divest of the skin.— 
The beavers run to the door to make their escape, are there 
entangled in the nets, seized by the Indians, and immediately 
skinned. Ellis. —To cover with the skin. 
Authority, though it err like others. 
Has yet a kind of medicine in itself. 
That skins the vice o’ the top. Shakspeare. 
To cover superficially.—What I took for solid earth was 
only heaps of rubbish, skinned over with a covering of 
vegetables. Addison. 
SKINBURNESS, a village of England, in Cumberland; 
11 miles north-west of Wigton. 
SKI'NDEEP, adj. Slight; superficial.—There is a power 
in virtue to attract our adherence to her before all the tran¬ 
sient and skin-deep pleasure that we fondly search after. 
Feliham. 
SKI'NFLINT, s. A niggardly person. 
SKINK, 5. [pcenc, Sax.] Drink; any thing potable; 
pottage.—Scotch skink, which is a pottage of strong nourish¬ 
ment, is made with the knees and sinews of beef, but long 
boiled. Bacon. 
To SKINK, v. n. [j cencan, Sax.] To serve drink. Both 
noun and verb are wholly obsolete. 
SKI'NKER, s. One that serves drink.—I give thee this 
pennyworth of sugar, clapt even now into my hand by an 
under skinker; one that never spake other English in his 
life, than eight shillings and sixpence, and you are vvelcome 
sir. Shakspeare. > 
SKINLESS, adj. Having a slight skin; as, the skinless 
pear. 
SKINNAND, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire; 10| 
miles north-west of Sleaford. 
SKINNED, adj. Having skin ; hard.—When the ulcer 
becomes foul, and discharges a nasty ichor, the edges in 
process of time tuck in, and growing skinned and hard, give 
it the name of callus. Sharp. 
SKINNER, s. A dealer in skins or pelts. 
SKINNER, (Stephen), an antiquary, was bom about the 
year 1622, in or near London. He received his academical 
education at Christ-church college, Oxford, in the year 1638, 
but the civil war caused him to leave the university without 
taking a degree. He thence travelled on the continent, and 
studied at various universities. On his return to his native 
country, he went to Oxford, and took his degree in arts, and 
then settled as a physician at Lincoln, where he died in 1667, 
