Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - skate

(skates, skating, skated) 1. Skates are ice-skates. N-COUNT 2. Skates are roller-skates. N-COUNT 3. If you skate, you move about wearing ice-skates or roller-skates. I actually skated, and despite some teetering I did not fall on the ice... Dan skated up to him. VERB: V, V adv/prep • skating They all went skating together in the winter. N-UNCOUNT • skater (skaters) West Lake, an outdoor ice-skating rink, attracts skaters during the day and night. N-COUNT 4. A skate is a kind of flat sea fish. Boats had plenty of mackerel and a few skate. = ray N-COUNT • Skate is this fish eaten as food. N-UNCOUNT 5. If you skate over or round a difficult subject, you avoid discussing it. Scientists have tended to skate over the difficulties of explaining dreams... When pressed, he skates around the subject of those women who he met as a 19-year-old. VERB: V over n, V round/around n