sky

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen.

   That year, a meteor fell from the sky.

2. 2
   noun

   With a descriptive word: the part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time; its climate, condition, etc.

   I lay back under a warm Texas sky.

3. 3
   noun

   Usually preceded by the: the abode of God or the gods, angels, the souls of deceased people, etc.; heaven; also, powers emanating from heaven.

   This mortal has incurred the wrath of the skies.

4. 4
   noun

   Ellipsis of sky blue.

   But yet methinks, thoſe knots of Sky, do not / So well with the dead colour of her Face.

5. 5
   verb

   To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the top of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen; (by extension) to put (something) in an undesirable place.

   The artists—I mean the younger brood, and not the Brother Academicians who "skied" his pictures—were the first and the most enthusiastic in his [George Fuller's] praise.

6. 6
   verb

   To toss (something) upwards; specifically, to flip (a coin).

   In ‘skying’ a coin for the purpose of deciding a point at issue between two parties, two methods are in vogue: there is either the ‘slow torture’ of spinning the coin thrice, the decision to go against the tosser-up, if the other party, twice out of the three times, guesses right on which side the coin shall fall; or, the ‘sudden death’ method in which one toss is decisive; […]

7. 7
   verb

   To hit, kick, or throw (a ball) extremely high.

   Hernandez [i.e., Félix Hernández] walked the bases loaded, then fell behind 3–1 in the count to Bobby Abreu, who then skied the next pitch to left for a sacrifice fly.

8. 8
   verb

   To miss a goal by kicking the ball over the crossbar.

   He laid on the two best chances, both wasted by Pratt, who skied one and stubbed his toe on the other.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English sky (“sky; cloud; mist”), also spelled ski, skie, [and other forms], from Old Norse ský (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud; sky”), from *skiwô (“cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky”) (whence Old English sċēo (“cloud”) and Middle English skew (“air; sky; (rare) cloud”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”). Partly displaced Old English heofon, which survives in the reflex heaven, still sometimes used in the sense of sky, but usually in high or poetic register. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates The English word…