%skate%

pos>n. One who skates on ice wearing an ice skate; esp. an athlete who performs athletic or artistic movements on a sheet of ice, wearing ice skates; a speed skater or a figure skater. [ PJC ]

. to glide on roller skates, as one might on ice skates. [ PJC ]

. 1. a shoe with a set of wheels attached so that the wearer can glide over a flat surface. To move on such a device is reverred to as to skate or to rollerskate. To rollerskate is a form of recreation or sport. [ PJC ]

2. a metal frame of the size of a shoe, with a set of wheels attached, and with adjustable clamps and straps that permit a shoe to be reversibly fastened to the frame. It serves the same purpose as the roller skate having the shoe permanently attached, but is typically less expensive. [ PJC ]

n. [ D. schaats. Cf. Scatches. ] A metallic runner with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, -- made to be fastened under the foot, and used for moving rapidly on ice. [ 1913 Webster ]

Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep,
On sounding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,
The then gay land is maddened all to joy. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Roller skate. See under Roller. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Skated; p. pr. & vb. n. Skating. ] To move on skates. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Icel. skata; cf. Prov. G. schatten, meer-schatten, L. squatus, squatina, and E. shad. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of large, flat elasmobranch fishes of the genus Raia, having a long, slender tail, terminated by a small caudal fin. The pectoral fins, which are large and broad and united to the sides of the body and head, give a somewhat rhombic form to these fishes. The skin is more or less spinose. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Some of the species are used for food, as the European blue or gray skate (Raia batis), which sometimes weighs nearly 200 pounds. The American smooth, or barn-door, skate (Raia laevis) is also a large species, often becoming three or four feet across. The common spiny skate (Raia erinacea) is much smaller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Skate's egg. See Sea purse. --
Skate sucker, any marine leech of the genus Pontobdella, parasitic on skates. [ 1913 Webster ]