skiff

noun

1. A 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.”

   “As Hiro is entering their neighborhood, he sees men running down the undulating pontoon bridge that serves as the main street, carrying guns and knives. The local constabulary. More men of the same description emerge from the byways and skiffs and sampans, joining them.”

2. 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 […]”

   “Graceful old houses stand by the edge of the Great Ouse and gaze down at the houseboats, skiffs and motor-cruisers that moor there.”

3. 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 little on again, off again, skiff of rain made the road slippery in spots.”

   “Meadowlarks are in full voice, as are all manner of ducks, geese and gulls; with just a skiff of wind, sound travels a long way on mornings such as this.”

   “A lashing skiff of rain sheeted across the desert, a gift from the heavens that cooled my skin and allowed some color to return to the world. It was enough to combat the smell of creosote, but not enough to sustain the land, so the desert lay back ...”

4. 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; […]”

   “There was a light skiff of snow on the ground. The air was filled with flying flakes, which stung his cheeks sharply. A little streak of red was beginning to show in the east, and somewhere, far away, he heard a chicken crow sleepily.”

   “Bring a natural-looking touch of snow indoors by using your fingertips to lightly spread White Christmas Snow along the tops of the branches on your Christmas tree. To create a light skiff of snow on a six-foot noble fir, double the recipe.”

   “A thick skiff of dust covered the contents of the room and revealed hundreds of tracks made by very large rodents.”

   “It was getting time to start trapping and Hawk was getting anxious. Fall was everywhere from the yellow aspens, to the skiff of ice on the beaver ponds in the morning. Elk could be heard bugling up and down the valley […]”

5. 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.”

   “The sequence of the 3-year pruning cycle is light pruning; light skiff; and deep skiff[…]”

verb

1. (transitive)To navigate in a skiff.
2. (dialectal)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.”

   “The sharp wind divides the dense fur of their winter coats while they survey the snow-skiffed ground of their silent town.”

   “1983, Roy McFadden, The Selected Roy McFadden, Dundonald, N. Ireland : Blackstaff Press With glimpses through the skiffing rain / Of Donegal across the bay, / And Scotland when the early mist is blown, […]”

   “The first year I stayed on 'til snow skiffed the highways & we had to burn the frost out of the ditchline with coal.”

   “[…] two hours probing burnished lamps into rain-skiffed darkness, a digger burred, clanked […]”

3. 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.”

name

1. A surname.