skiver

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskaɪvə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskaɪvəɹ/
• Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)

From skive (“play truant”) +‎ -er. Probably from French esquiver (“slink away”).

skiver (plural skivers) (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal)

1. A slacker.
2. A truant; one who is absent without permission, especially from school.

From skive (“to shave”) +‎ -er. Probably from Dutch schijf (“slice”),^[1] probably influenced by shive.

skiver (plural skivers)

1. One who uses a skive (or skives).
2. (dialect) A skewer.
3. An inferior quality of leather, made of split sheepskin, tanned by immersion in sumac, and dyed, formerly used for hat linings, pocketbooks, bookbinding, etc.
4. The cutting tool or machine used in splitting leather or skins.

skiver (third-person singular simple present skivers, present participle skivering, simple past and past participle skivered)

1. (UK, dialect) To skewer, impale.
   • 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “The Dead Secret, Showing how the Fire-worker Proved to Puddock that Nutter Had Spied Out the Nakedness of the Land”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 102:

     […] it's I that wishes I could be sure 'twas malice, I'd skiver you, heels and elbows, on my sword, and roast you alive on that fire.

   • 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “chapter 9”, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     I'll finish heating the oven, and set you free to go and skiver up them ducks.

• kivers

skiver m or f

1. indefinite plural of skive

skiver f

1. indefinite plural of skive