skate
n. countablen. a boot with a blade or wheels on the bottom that you use to move quickly across ice or a flat floor. You wear them in pairs to glide or perform tricks.
n. a boot-like footwear item equipped with either a metal blade for ice or a set of wheels for solid surfaces. Refers to the equipment used for gliding across a substrate via physical propulsion.
I need to sharpen the blades on my skates before the game.
She laced up her skates tightly to ensure her ankles had enough support while she practiced her jumps on the ice.
While professional figure skates feature a toe pick for jumping, hockey skates are designed with a rounded blade to facilitate rapid changes in direction and explosive speed.
Back-formation from Dutch schaats, from Middle Dutch schāetse, from Old Northern French escache (“a stilt, trestle”) (compare French échasse and English scatch), from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish skakkjā (“stilt”, literally “thing that moves”), related to skakan (“to shake, swing”).
From Middle English skat, scate (also schat), from Old Norse skata (“skate”). Cognate with Icelandic skata (“skate, ray”), Norwegian skate (“skate”).
Origin uncertain, but probably related to skite.
Commonly used in the plural when referring to the pair of boots worn by a person.