1892. Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, 'Gunga Din.' With 'is mussick on 'is back, 'E would skip with our attack.
1895. Pocock, Rules of the Game, ii. 10. If I had known of this warrant, I'd have gone on my knees and implored him for your dear sake not to skip the train.
2. (common).—To die: see Hop the Twig.
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, xv. The dark pool of blood . . . told its awful story . . . Skipped out . . . game to the last, and never flinched.
3. (common).—To read hastily, picking out passages here and there. Hence 4 (University), to shirk work. Also skipper = a hasty reader; and skippable = easily and quickly read.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Feb. Two classes of readers, however, may get not a little that is interesting out of this book—the pachydermatous plodder and the judicious skipper.
Skip-brain, adj. (old).—Flighty;
volatile; fickle.
1603. Davies, Microcosmus, 30. This skipp-braine Fancie.
Skipjack, subs. (old).—1. A horse-dealer's
jockey (B. E. and Grose).
1568. Fulwel, Like will to Like [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 565. Here we see knave of clubs, skipjack, snip-snap].
1608-9. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, x. The boyes, striplings, &c, that have the riding of the jades up and downe are called skip-jackes.
2.—A nobody; a trifler: also skipper.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, 111. Now the devil, said she, take these villains, that can never leave grinning, because I am not so fair as mistress Mopsa; to see how this skip-jack looks at me.
d.1592. Greene, Alphonsus, i. What, know'st thou, skip-jack, whom thou villain call'st.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, ii. 1, 341. Skipper, 'tis age that nourisheth.
1611. Cotgrave, Nimbot. A dwarfe, dandiprat, little skip-jacke.
1670. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft [Works (1725), 190]. But till thou hadst this Skip-Jack got.
Skipper, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A
barn (Awdeley, Harman, Rowlands,
Head, B. E., and
Grose). Whence as verb. (or to
skipper it) = to sleep in the
straw or in Hedge Square
(q.v.); skipper-bird = a barn-rooster
or hedge-tramp.
1652. Broome, Jovial Crew, ii. Now let each tripper Make a retreat into the skipper.
1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab., ii. 83. When I get down I go to sleep for a couple of hours. I skipper it—turn in under a hedge or anywhere. Ibid., i. 336. Here is the best places in England for skipper-birds (parties that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or outhouses, sometimes without a blanket). . . . 'Key-*hole whistlers,' the skipper-birds are sometimes called.
2. (common).—The Devil. For synonyms see Black Spy.
3. (B. E. and Grose: still colloquial).—'A Dutch Master of a Ship or Vessell'; in modern use any ship's captain; and (4) a leader or chief in any enterprise, adventure, or business. Hence 5. (general) a master, boss (q.v.), governor (q.v.).
1485-1500. Gardner, Letters of Rich. III. and Hen. VII. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 352. There is the skippar of a ship, and the Northern form raid]. Ibid. 341 (1509). [James IV. speaks of a crew as including] Master, 2 factours, skippar, sterisman.
1600. Decker, Show. Holiday [Grosart, Wks. (1873), i. 30]. Do you remember the shippe my fellow Hans told you of, the skipper and he are both drinking at the Swan?
1636. Suckling, Goblins, iv. With as much ease as a skipper Would laver against the wind.
