Skim vs Surf - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between skim and surf

is that skim is to pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface while surf is to ride a wave, usually on a surfboard.

As an adjective skim

is having lowered fat content.

As a noun surf is

waves that break on an ocean shoreline.

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

surf

English

(wikipedia surf)

Noun

(-)

Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.

* 1883 ,

...perhaps it was the look of the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach...

* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 5

'But when the surf fell enough for the boats to get ashore, and Greening held a lantern for me to jump down into the passage, after we had got the side out of the tomb, the first thing the light fell on at the bottom was a white face turned skyward.

* {{quote-book

, page=12 , year=1900 , author=Joseph Grinnell , title=Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska citation , passage=It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf .}}

* {{quote-book

, page=248 , year=1941 , author=Raymond Russell Camp , title=Fishing the Surf citation , passage=In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars.}}

* {{quote-book

, page=181 , year=1963 , author=Vlad Evanoff , title=Spin Fishing citation , passage=Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf , especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.}}

(UK, dialect) The bottom of a drain.

Derived terms

* surf line * surf rider noun

Verb

(surf)

To ride a wave, usually on a surfboard.

To browse the Internet.

Derived terms

* surfer noun

Derived terms

* (ride a wave) surfer, surfing, surfboard * (browse the Internet) silver surfer

Anagrams

* furs English terms with unknown etymologies ----