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Glite Dictionary
to skip a beat

to skip a beat

9 6.1
To feel your heart stop for a moment because you are suddenly excited or scared
  • idiom
  • Informal
: parar un momento
  • You make my heart skip a beat.
  • heart skips a beat

His heart skipped a beat when he saw what was in the Hut.

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Examples

  • When you are near me, my heart skips a beat.

    Kalamity (2010)

  • When I saw him walk through the door, my heart skipped a beat from excitement.

  • Gosh, it was enough to make my old heart skip a beat.

    Air Buddies (2006)

  • Rick felt his heart skip a beat.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Every time I saw him, my heart skipped a beat.

    The Stones and Brian Jones (2024)

  • My heart skipped a beat when I got your e-mail.

    Untraceable (2008)

  • Her heart just skipped a beat.

    Ray (2004)

  • My heart skipped a beat.

    Suburbicon (2017)

  • Then I felt my heart skip a beat, and I realized I was turning pale.

    Academic text (2007)

  • My heart skipped a beat and then it took off racing.

    Dr. Phil

Synonyms

to flutter
vsto skip a beat
8 4.4

To have the heart beat quickly and unevenly, often from excitement or nervousness

seems to pause briefly from sudden emotion instead of racing
to palpitate
vsto skip a beat
1 8.4

To shake quickly and unevenly because of a strong feeling or physical reaction

seems to pause briefly from sudden emotion rather than keep beating fast
palpitating
vsto skip a beat
7.2

Beating or trembling quickly because of strong feeling

seems to stop briefly from sudden emotion rather than tremble

Antonyms

to continue
∞ 1.0

To keep doing something without stopping

How Intense

stop
310 1.0
to pound
98 2.6
to skip a beat
  • Informal
9 6.1
to flutter
8 4.4

Surface Forms

skip a beat infinitive
skipped a beat past
skipped a beat past participle
skipping a beat present participle
skips a beat third person singular

Morphology

skip + a + beat

The meaning 'the heart seems to stop briefly' is directly derivable from combining 'skip' (to pass over or omit) with 'beat' (a regular pulsation), so a learner who knows both words can infer a missed or omitted heartbeat. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common metaphorical composition following normal verb + noun patterns, making it readily comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The idiom skip a beat comes from the way your heart can seem to skip a beat when you are suddenly excited, scared, or surprised. So, today it means 'to feel a sudden strong emotion'.