Literary notes about skip (AI summary)
The word "skip" is employed in literature with a surprising range of meanings—from the literal, buoyant act of leaping or dancing to a more figurative notion of omission or bypassing. At times, it evokes a sense of childlike joy and agility, as characters skip for delight or simply bound about in an exuberant, carefree manner ([1], [2], [3]). In other contexts, it serves as a directive to set aside details or rules, suggesting a deliberate sidestepping of conventions or narrative elements ([4], [5], [6]). Some authors use it to symbolize a brisk, fluid transition in both movement and thought, sometimes even hinting at a metaphorical leap over time or space ([7], [8]). The effect is one of lightness and immediacy—a small word carrying with it the power to animate a scene or compress a complex sequence into a single, skipping moment.
- Men have a firm step, and when they walk over peas none of them stir, but girls trip and skip, and drag their feet, and the peas roll about.’
— from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - Tom with his pipe made such a noise, That he pleased both the girls and boys; They'd dance and skip while he did play, "Over the hills and far away."
— from Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes - Do you think I could ever skip like that?” “You just try it,” urged Martha, handing her the skipping-rope.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - She presently made up her mind to skip the rules in the Syntax, the examples became so absorbing.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - There are a few other things also determined by the mode, but they're advanced topics so we'll skip them for now.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs - [Pg 71] CHAPTER XXIV VOYAGE IN AN UNKNOWN LAND I advise the majority of people born in the North to skip the present chapter.
— from On Love by Stendhal - We skip ten years and this history finds certain changes to record.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - [235] when you skip over space and time, and the laws of thought and existence, and only pause upon the points for which the heart yearns.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky