Skim vs Gist - What's the difference?
skim | gist |
To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
* Alexander Pope
To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
* Hazlitt
To hasten along with superficial attention.
* I. Watts
To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
to throw an object so it bounces on water (skimming stones )
to ricochet
to read quickly, skipping some detail
to scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
to clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the surface.
to clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk
(of milk) Having lowered fat content.
The most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter
* 1948 , , Remembrance Rock , page 103,
*
* 1996 , Nicky Silver, Etiquette and Vitriol , Theatre Communications Group 1996, p. 10:
* 2003 , David McDuff, translating Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment , Penguin 2003 p. 183:
(legal, dated) The essential ground for action in a suit, without which there is no cause of action.
(obsolete) Resting place (especially of animals), lodging.
* 1601 , (Philemon Holland)'s translation of (w, Pliny's Natural History) , 1st ed.,
To summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.
* 1873 , Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association, session of the year 1872, at Boston, Massachusetts , page 201:
As verbs the difference between skim and gist
is that skim is to pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface while gist is to summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.As an adjective skim
is having lowered fat content.As a noun gist is
the most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter.skim
English
Verb
(skimm)- Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, / Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
- Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.
- They skim over a science in a very superficial survey.
- I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.
- to skim''' milk; to '''skim broth
- to skim cream
Derived terms
* skim through * skim over * skim off * skimmed milk * skimmer * semi-skimmedAdjective
(-)Derived terms
* skim milkgist
English
Noun
- "Should they live and build their church in the American wilderness, their worst dangers would rise in and among themselves rather than outside. That was the gist of the lesson from their pastor and "wellwiller" John Robinson."
- I was really just vomiting images like spoiled sushi (that may be an ill-considered metaphor, but you get my gist ).
- I don't remember his exact words, but the gist of it was that he wanted it all for nothing, as quickly as possible, without any effort.
book X, chapter XXIII “Of Swallowes, Ousles, or Merles, Thrushes, Stares or Sterlings, Turtles, and Stockdoves.”, p. 282:
- These Quailes have their set gists', to wit, ordinarie resting and baiting places. [These quails have their set ' gists , to wit, ordinary resting and baiting places.]
Verb
(en verb)- There are two general ways of getting information, and these two general ways may be summed up in this: take one branch of study and its principles are all gisted', they have been '''gisted''' by the accumulated thought of years gone by. These ' gisted thoughts are axioms, or received principles,