Word: sky Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English sky (“sky; cloud; mist”), also spelled ski, skie, [and other forms], from Old Norse ský (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud; sky”), from *skiwô (“cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky”) (whence Old English sċēo (“cloud”) and Middle English skew (“air; sky; (rare) cloud”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”). Partly displaced Old English heofon, which survives in the reflex heaven, still sometimes used in the sense of sky, but usually in high or poetic register. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates The English word is cognate with Old English scēo (“cloud”), Old Saxon scio, skio, skeo (“light cloud cover”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål sky (“cloud”), Old Irish ceo (“mist, fog”), Irish ceo (“mist, fog”). It is also related to Old English scūa (“shadow, darkness”), Latin obscūrus (“dark, shadowy”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “he covers”). See also hide, hose, house, hut, shoe. Pronunciation: /skaɪ/ 1. To drink (a beverage) from a container without one's lips touching the container. Labels: informal, transitive 2. To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the top of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen; (by extension) to put (something) in an undesirable place. Labels: dated, informal, transitive Example: The artists—I mean the younger brood, and not the Brother Academicians who "skied" his pictures—were the first and the most enthusiastic in his [George Fuller's] praise. 3. To toss (something) upwards; specifically, to flip (a coin). Labels: dated, slang, transitive Example: In ‘skying’ a coin for the purpose of deciding a point at issue between two parties, two methods are in vogue: there is either the ‘slow torture’ of spinning the coin thrice, the decision to go against the tosser-up, if the other party, twice out of the three times, guesses right on which side the coin shall fall; or, the ‘sudden death’ method in which one toss is decisive; […] 4. To clear (a high jump bar, hurdle, etc.) by a large margin. Labels: transitive 5. To hit, kick, or throw (a ball) extremely high. Labels: transitive Example: Hernandez [i.e., Félix Hernández] walked the bases loaded, then fell behind 3–1 in the count to Bobby Abreu, who then skied the next pitch to left for a sacrifice fly. 6. To miss a goal by kicking the ball over the crossbar. Labels: transitive Example: He laid on the two best chances, both wasted by Pratt, who skied one and stubbed his toe on the other. Example: Van Persie [i.e., Robin van Persie] skied a penalty, conceded by Gary Caldwell who was sent off, and also hit the post before scoring his third with a shot at the near post. 7. To raise (the price of an item on auction, or the level of the bids generally) by bidding high. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: All of a sudden he appeared as a third competitor, skied the Flying Scud with four fat bids of a thousand dollars each, and then as suddenly fled the field, remaining thenceforth (as before) a silent, interested spectator. 8. To move quickly, as if by flying; to fly; also, to escape, to flee (especially by airplane). Labels: intransitive 9. To hit, kick, or throw a ball extremely high. Labels: intransitive 10. To raise an oar too high above the water. Labels: intransitive