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Skim vs Gist - What's the difference?

skim | gist |

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)
  • To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, / Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
  • To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
  • * Hazlitt
  • Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.
  • To hasten along with superficial attention.
  • * I. Watts
  • They skim over a science in a very superficial survey.
  • 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
  • I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.
  • 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 skim''' milk; to '''skim broth
  • to clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk
  • to skim cream

    Derived terms

    * skim through * skim over * skim off * skimmed milk * skimmer * semi-skimmed

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (of milk) Having lowered fat content.
  • Derived terms

    * skim milk

    gist

    English

    Noun

  • 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,
  • "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."
  • *
  • * 1996 , Nicky Silver, Etiquette and Vitriol , Theatre Communications Group 1996, p. 10:
  • I was really just vomiting images like spoiled sushi (that may be an ill-considered metaphor, but you get my gist ).
  • * 2003 , David McDuff, translating Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment , Penguin 2003 p. 183:
  • 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.
  • (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., 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)
  • 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:
  • 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,
    (extract the most important) (trans-mid) (trans-bottom)

    Anagrams

    * *

    References

    * * “ gist” in (w, Bouvier's Law Dictionary), Revised 6th Ed , 1856. * ----