Skim vs Graze - What's the difference?

In intransitive terms the difference between skim and graze

is that skim is to ricochet while graze is to yield grass for grazing.

In transitive terms the difference between skim and graze

is that skim is to clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk while graze is to cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

As an adjective skim

is having lowered fat content.

As a noun graze is

the act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.

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

graze

English

Noun

(en noun)

The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.

A light abrasion; a slight scratch.

Verb

(graz)

To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.

* Jonathan Swift

a field or two to graze his cows

* 1999:' Although it is perfectly good meadowland, none of the villagers has ever '''grazed animals on the meadow on the other side of the wall. — ''Stardust , Neil Gaiman, page 4 (2001 Perennial Edition).

(ambitransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture); to browse.

Cattle graze in the meadows.

* Alexander Pope

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead.

* 1993 , John Montroll, Origami Inside-Out (page 41)

The bird [Canada goose] is more often found on land than other waterfowl because of its love for seeds and grains. The long neck is well adapted for grazing .

To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.

* Shakespeare

when Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep

To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.

the bullet grazed the wall

* 1851 ,

But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.

To cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

to graze one's knee

To yield grass for grazing.

* Francis Bacon

The sewers must be kept so as the water may not stay too long in the spring; for then the ground continueth the wet, whereby it will never graze to purpose that year.

Derived terms

* overgraze

Anagrams

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