sports equipment that is worn on the feet to enable the wearer to glide along and to be propelled by the alternate actions of the legs
"The children put on their inline skates before heading out to the frozen pond."
large edible rays having a long snout and thick tail with pectoral fins continuous with the head; swim by undulating the edges of the pectoral fins
"The diver spotted a skate gliding gracefully along the sandy ocean floor, its wide body propelled solely by the rhythmic waving of its wing-like pectoral fins."
A runner or blade, usually of steel, with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, made to be fastened under the foot, and used for gliding on ice.
"The old pony was so tired that he had become a true skate, barely able to pull the cart up the hill."
A fish of the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea (rays) which inhabit most seas. Skates generally have small heads with protruding muzzles, and wide fins attached to a flat body.
A worn-out horse.
In plain English: A skate is an old-fashioned word for a flatfish that looks like it's wearing ice skates because of its wide, flattened body shape.
"I went to the rink yesterday to rent my first pair of skates."
Usage: Use "skate" as a noun specifically when referring to either the ray-like fish found in oceans or the blade attached to footwear for moving across ice. Avoid confusing this term with similar-sounding words like "slate," which refers entirely to stone, since they share no meaning despite their phonetic similarity.
To move along a surface (ice or ground) using skates.
"The children loved to skate across the frozen pond on their new boots."
In plain English: To skate means to move quickly on roller skates, ice skates, or a skateboard by gliding along the ground.
"She learned to skate on her new ice skates last winter."
Pertaining to the technique of skating.
"The coach praised her excellent skate during the final performance."
In plain English: Skate means something that is not serious, real, or important and can be easily ignored.
"The ice was so smooth and slippery that we could easily skate across it without falling down."
The ship of characters James "Sawyer" Ford and Kate Austen from the television series Lost.
"James Sawyer and Kate Austen often sailed across the Pacific Ocean on their shared vessel, the Skate."
The word skate is actually a back-formation derived from the Dutch term for ice skates. It ultimately traces its roots to an ancient Germanic root meaning "to shake" or "swing," likely referring to the motion of moving on stilts before evolving into modern skating equipment.