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figure skate

figure skate

3.2
A boot with a metal blade and toe picks for jumps and spins on ice
  • noun
  • /ˈfɪɡjər skeɪt/
translation icon : patín artístico
  • During her lesson, she showed off her skills by performing a spin on her figure skate.

This week on GMM we are doing an episode where Rhett and Link are going to be chopping onions with various pointy and sharp things, one of them being figure skates.

Examples

  • If I take this to the rink, meet me outside on the rink with figure skates on in a Tutu demo fight.

  • The young girl received her first pair of figure skates as a gift, eager to join the skating team.

  • At the rink, the coach advised all the beginners to wear figure skates for better balance while learning.

Synonyms

skate
vsfigure skate
98 1.7

A shoe with a blade or wheels that you wear to glide on a smooth surface

is limited to ice and includes blade details for jumps and spins
ice skate
vsfigure skate
3 1.0

A boot with a metal blade that lets you move on ice

has a curved blade and jagged front points for jumps and spins

How Fast

ice skate
3 1.0
hockey skate
1 2.8
figure skate
3.2

Surface Forms

figure skate singular
figure skates plural

Morphology

figure + skate

While 'skate' (to glide on skates) is transparent, the sense of 'figure' here (performing planned shapes or artistic patterns on ice) is a specialized, sport-specific extension of 'figure' that a B1 learner might not infer from the basic noun meaning 'shape'. The overall meaning is partially derivable but relies on knowledge of the established sports term 'figure skating', so it is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Figure skate The noun figure skate comes from skaters who used a special figure skate to trace 'figures' — clear shapes and patterns — on the ice. The blade's small teeth and curved shape helped with jumps and spins, so the name came to mean the skate used for artistic skating.