skiff/skɪf/EtymologyFrom Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.nameA surname.nounA small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern.“Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.”Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person.“I went alone into a Shepherd's boat, A skiff that to a willow-tree was tied Within a rocky cave, its usual home […]”A light, fleeting shower of rain or snow, or gust of wind, etc.“A skiff of rain blew into the shed and the two men moved their chairs back.”A (typically light) dusting of snow or ice (or dust, etc) (on ground, water, trees, etc).“At sunrise there was a slight skiff of ice on some water in a bucket; […]”An act of slightly pruning tea bushes, placing new leaves at a convenient height without removing much woody growth.“In the fourth year, "light skiff" pruning removes just the uppermost growth.”verbTo navigate in a skiff.To fall lightly or briefly, and lightly cover the ground (etc).“We must be constantly alert to increased accident potentials in taxiing, takeoff, and landings on ice-glazed and snow-skiffed runways.”To cut (a tea bush) to maintain the plucking table.“Skiffing is the lightest form of pruning involving as it does removal of a certain amount of growth above the previous pruning level.”