skim

1. 1.

   a thin layer covering the surface of a liquid

   “there was a thin skim of oil on the water”

   Broadercovering
2. 2.

   reading or glancing through quickly

   Synonymsskimming

   Broaderreading

1. 1.

   used of milk and milk products from which the cream has been removed

   “yogurt made with skim milk”

   “she can drink skimmed milk but should avoid butter”

   Synonymsskimmed

   Similarnonfat

Other forms of skim

plural

skims·

past tense or participle

skimmed

present participle

skimming

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about skim

What does skim mean?

skim means "travel on the surface of water". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in skim?

skim has 1 syllable: skim. In IPA it is /ˈskɪm/.

What is another word for skim?

Close synonyms include plane, skim over, scan, rake, glance over. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is skim a common word?

skim is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.