n. [ Icel. skīð a billet of wood. See Shide. ] [ Written also skeed. ] 1. A shoe or clog, as of iron, attached to a chain, and placed under the wheel of a wagon to prevent its turning when descending a steep hill; a drag; a skidpan; also, by extension, a hook attached to a chain, and used for the same purpose. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A piece of timber used as a support, or to receive pressure. Specifically: (a) pl. (Naut.) Large fenders hung over a vessel's side to protect it in handling a cargo. Totten. (b) One of a pair of timbers or bars, usually arranged so as to form an inclined plane, as form a wagon to a door, along which anything is moved by sliding or rolling. (c) One of a pair of horizontal rails or timbers for supporting anything, as a boat, a barrel, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Aeronautics) A runner (one or two) under some flying machines, used for landing. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

4. A low movable platform for supporting heavy items to be transported, typically of two layers, and having a space between the layers into which the fork of a fork lift can be inserted; it is used to conveniently transport heavy objects by means of a fork lift; -- a skid without wheels is the same as a pallet. [ PJC ]

5. pl. Declining fortunes; a movement toward defeat or downfall; -- used mostly in the phrase
on the skids and
hit the skids. [ PJC ]

6. [ From the v. ] Act of skidding; -- called also side slip. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Skidded p. pr. & vb. n. Skidding. ] 1. To protect or support with a skid or skids; also, to cause to move on skids. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To check with a skid, as wagon wheels. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Forestry) To haul (logs) to a skid and load on a skidway. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. 1. To slide without rotating; -- said of a wheel held from turning while the vehicle moves onward. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. To fail to grip the roadway; specif., to slip sideways on the road; to side-slip; -- said esp. of a cycle or automobile. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Zool.) The black guillemot. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One that skids; one that uses a skid; specif.: (Logging) (a) One that skids logs. (b) An engine for hauling the cable used in skidding logs. (c) The foreman of a construction gang making a skid road. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. See Skid, n., 1. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Logging) (a) A road along which logs are dragged to the skidway or landing; -- called also travois road or travoy road. (b) A road having partly sunken transverse logs (called skids) at intervals of about five feet. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]