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🌊 To glide on water 🛷 A water sport board
to water ski

to water ski

4 3.4
To glide across water while being pulled by a boat
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈwɔːtər ski/
translation icon : esquiar en agua
  • Every weekend, we go to the beach so I can water ski behind the motorboat.
  • loved to water ski
  • like to water ski
  • swim or water ski

I think the highlight for me was watching a squirrel water ski, Which, yeah, I can't do that.

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Examples

  • Yeah, I, I, I learned how to water ski behind an excavator.

  • So that's where I learned to water ski.

    Bad Teacher (2011)

  • Can you teach me how to water-ski?

    Brian and Charles (2022)

  • I, uh... I was trying to water-ski on Lake Louise.

    Narrow Margin (1990)

  • I water-ski and swim quite well, since I was a teenager.

    The Lobster (2015)

  • We can water ski in Puerto Rico.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • It doesn't look like I'll be able to water ski at the North Pole this year.

    Blog text (33)

  • I'm going to Sleepwick Camp in Maine and I'm going to learn to water-ski.

    Just Looking (1999)

  • I've seen you run, swim, water-ski, cross-country ski, dance; and you ski downhill.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • He rafted down rapids, competed in water-ski jumping, and raced around slalom water ski courses.

    Blog text (25)

Synonyms

to ski
vsto water ski
146 1.0

To move over snow on long narrow boards attached to your feet

is done while usually towed by a motorboat
to aquaplane
vsto water ski
7.9

To ride on a wide board a boat pulls behind it across the water

uses narrow sliding equipment instead of a wide board

How Fast

to water ski
4 3.4
to surf
89 2.1
to paddle
57 1.4
to float
645 1.0

Surface Forms

water ski infinitive
water skied past
water skied past participle
water skiing present participle
water skis third person singular

Morphology

water + ski

The noun's meaning is directly compositional: 'ski' (a long narrow runner for feet) modified by 'water' specifies the medium, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a ski used on water. This compound follows a transparent modifier+noun pattern found across many languages, making the concept readily deducible from its parts.

Etymology

Water ski comes from the clear picture of wearing skis on water and being pulled along by a boat, like snow skiing but on a lake. So the verb means 'to glide across water while being pulled by a boat'.