to skate over
1
6.9
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
pasar por alto
- As it is, the bit you skate over will make your future spectacularly unlikely.
Examples
-
To assume otherwise is to skate over a host of complex and controversial issues.
Blog text (30) -
And the, the animation pulls back and you can see that it's skating over and cutting up human rights.
-
They will keep it base and salacious and attempt to skate over or ignore this crap.
Blog text (14) -
The speaker decided to skate over the complicated facts to keep the audience engaged.
-
In his presentation, he tended to skate over the critical issues, leaving many questions unanswered.
-
If we continue to skate over the main problems, we will never find a lasting solution.
Synonyms
22
6.5
Make a problem or mistake seem less serious by leaving out details
18
4.9
Make a problem or argument seem less serious without fixing it
13
4.5
Ignore a person or thing because you think they are not important
3
4.7
To ignore an opinion or worry as unimportant
1
3.8
To read quickly without looking at details
1
7.0
Avoid facing a difficult subject directly
To deal with a subject quickly and without enough detail
To deal with something quickly and not in enough detail
Antonyms
How Thorough
Surface Forms
Morphology
skate + over
The phrase uses a clear motion metaphor: 'skate' (glide along) + 'over' (across) suggests moving across something without stopping, which points toward handling something quickly or superficially. However, the target sense 'deal with quickly and superficially' is a metaphorical extension that a B1 learner may not reliably predict from the parts alone, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Skate over may come from the image of someone skateing quickly across thin ice and gliding over weak spots without stopping. So, to skate over something means 'to deal with it quickly and without detail'.