different between career vs skim

English

Etymology

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (a road or racecourse), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carr?ria based on Latin carrus 'wheeled vehicle'. Alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan carriera ("road"), from Late Latin carr?ria.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• Homophone (non-rhotic accents only): Korea
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. One's calling in life; a person's occupation; one's profession.
2. General course of action or conduct in life, or in a particular part of it.

3. (archaic) Speed.
   • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick

     when a horse is running in his full career

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     It may be admitted that Democracy, in all meanings of the word, is in full career; irresistible by any Ritter Kauderwalsch or other Son of Adam, as times go.

4. A jouster's path during a joust.
   • 1819: Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     These knights, therefore, their aim being thus eluded, rushed from opposite sides betwixt the object of their attack and the Templar, almost running their horses against each other ere they could stop their career.

5. (obsolete) A short gallop of a horse. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essyas, I.48:

     It is said of Cæsar […] that in his youth being mounted upon a horse, and without any bridle, he made him run a full cariere [tr. carriere], make a sodaine stop, and with his hands behind his backe performe what ever can be expected of an excellent ready horse.

   • 1756, William Guthrie (translator), Of Eloquence (originally by Quintillian)

     Such littleness damps the heat, and weakens the force of genius; as we check a horse in his career, and rein him in when we want him to amble

6. (falconry) The flight of a hawk.
7. (obsolete) A racecourse; the ground run over.

   • to think of going back again the same career

Related terms

• careerism
• careerist

Translations

Verb

career (third-person singular simple present careers, present participle careering, simple past and past participle careered)

1. To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.

   Synonym: careen

   The car careered down the road, missed the curve, and went through a hedge.

Translations

Adjective

career (not comparable)

1. Synonym of serial (“doing something repeatedly or regularly as part of one's lifestyle or career”)

   a career criminal

   • 2012, Arthur Gillard, Homelessness (page 38)

     Studies on homeless income find that the typical “career panhandler” who dedicates his time overwhelmingly to begging can make between $600 and $1,500 a month.

Further reading

• "career" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 52.

Scots

Etymology

From English career.

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. career

English

Etymology

From Middle English skemen, skymen, variants of scumen, from Old French escumer (“to remove scum”), from escume (“froth, foam”), from Frankish *sk?m (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Germanic *sk?maz (“foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *skew- (“to cover, conceal”). See scum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Verb

skim (third-person singular simple present skims, present participle skimming, simple past and past participle skimmed)

1. (intransitive) To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
2. (transitive) To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
   • 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table

     Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.

3. To hasten along with superficial attention.

   • They skim over a science in a very night superficial survey.

4. To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
5. (transitive) To throw an object so it bounces on water.

6. (intransitive) To ricochet.
7. (transitive) To read quickly, skipping some detail.

8. (transitive) To scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
9. (transitive) To clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the surface.

10. (transitive) To clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk.

11. To steal money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
    • 2006, Herbert Snyder, Small Change, Big Problems (page 48)

      Obviously, the longer cash sits around before being recorded, the more likely it is that a skimming fraud will occur.

    • 2009, Tracy L. Coenen, Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide (page 109)

      […] take this money without entering anything into the record-keeping system, thereby accomplishing a theft by skimming.

12. To surreptitiously scan a payment card in order to obtain its information for fraudulent purposes.
13. (intransitive) To become coated over.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

skim (not comparable)

1. (of milk) Having lowered fat content.

Derived terms

• skim milk

Translations

Noun

skim (countable and uncountable, plural skims)

1. A cursory reading, skipping the details.
   • 2012, John Friend, Allen Hickling, Planning Under Pressure (page xxii)

     For a first quick appreciation of the approach, we recommend a fast reading of Chapter 1, then a skim through the figures of the next two chapters — glancing at the definitions of key concepts that appear below the figures in Chapters 2 and 3.

2. (informal) Skim milk.
   • 2010, Gary G. Kindley, Growing Older Without Fear: The Nine Qualities of Successful Aging

     Two percent milk has only a fraction less fat than whole milk, so unless you are feeding a child or someone whose diet requires whole milk, skim is best.

3. The act of skimming.
   • 1969, Newsweek (volume 74, page 75)

     Then you could jump 150 years and enjoy a skim across the Solent in Britain's remarkable Hovercraft.

4. That which is skimmed off.
5. Theft of money from a business before the transaction has been recorded, thus avoiding detection.
   • 1989, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at Federally Funded Wastewater Treatment Construction Projects (volume 4)

     This potential is further increased by the ease of passing on the costs of corruption and racketeering to consumers; a skim of only one percent of a construction project can amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: skim

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch schim, from Middle Dutch schim, schem, from Old Dutch *skim, *skimo, from Proto-Germanic *skimaz, *skimô (“shine; light”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?m/

Noun

skim (plural skimme)

1. A shade, a shadow, a spectre.

Indonesian

Etymology

From English skim.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s(?)k?m/

Noun

skim (first-person possessive skimku, second-person possessive skimmu, third-person possessive skimnya)

1. Skim milk.

Malay

Etymology

From English scheme.

Noun

skim (plural skim-skim, informal 1st possessive skimku, impolite 2nd possessive skimmu, 3rd possessive skimnya)

1. scheme.

Alternative forms

• skema (Indonesia)