skipping

Meanings

1. The activity of jumping over a rope that is swung under your feet and over your head.
2. The act of leaving something out or passing over it.

Example sentences

• "Skipping is a good way to warm up before a run."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

• "The girls played a skipping game at recess."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

• "He got fit by skipping every morning."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

• "Skipping breakfast made her tired by noon."

  Level B1, Meaning 2

• "She tied the skipping rope to a tree."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• jumping rope : Jumping rope is the usual American name for the same activity.
• hopping : Hopping is jumping on one foot. Skipping a rope uses both feet, and skipping along a path means light, springy steps.
• skimping : Skimping means spending or using too little. It looks like skipping but means something else.

Word family and forms

Forms: skippings

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "skipping".

• skipping rope
• a skipping game
• skipping class
• skipping meals
• skipping stones
• skipping breakfast
• go skipping

Origin

Skipping is the present participle of skip. Skip came into English in the 1200s or 1300s as Middle English skippen, probably from an Old Norse word meaning to take a run, and it is related to words in Icelandic and Swedish for hopping. Skipping as the name of the rope game is a later use of the same verb.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

Usage notes

Called "jumping rope" in American English.

How to remember it

Think of a skipping rope turning over your head. Each time it comes round, you hop over it. That repeated hop is skipping.

Test yourself

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