skewer

skewer

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskjuː.ə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskjuː.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -uːə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English skeuier, skuer, likely a variant of Middle English *skever, *skiver (compare Modern English skiver), probably of North Germanic origin, compare Icelandic skífa (“to slice”), Norwegian skive, Swedish skiva, Swedish skifer (“a slate”).

Noun

skewer (plural skewers)

Meat on skewers

Bamboo skewers

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The white king is skewered by the black bishop, since after it moves out of check, the bishop can capture the white queen.

1. A long pin, normally made of metal or wood, used to secure food during cooking.
2. Food served on a skewer. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (chess) A scenario in which a piece attacks a more valuable piece which, if it moves aside, reveals a less valuable piece.

   Coordinate term: pin

   Hyponyms: absolute skewer, relative skewer

Translations

pin used to secure food during cooking

Armenian: շամփուր (hy) (šampʿur), շիշ (hy) (šiš) (dialectal) Bashkir: шеш (şeş) Basque: txitxi-burruntzi Belarusian: шампу́р m (šampúr), ражо́н m (ražón), круця́к m (krucják) Bulgarian: шиш m (šiš) Catalan: broqueta f Chinese: Mandarin: 烤肉叉 (zh) (kǎoròuchā), 扦子 (zh) (qiānzi) Czech: špíz m Dutch: spies (nl) Estonian: varras Finnish: varras (fi), paistinvarras (fi) French: brochette (fr) f, broche (fr) f Georgian: შამფური (šampuri) German: Spieß (de) m, Spießchen n Greek: σούβλα (el) n (soúvla) Ancient Greek: ὀβελός m (obelós) Hebrew: שיפוד‎ (he) m (shipud) Hungarian: nyárs (hu) Icelandic: spýta (is) f Irish: briogún m, scibhéar m Japanese: 串 (ja) (くし, kushi) Korean: 꼬치 (ko) (kkochi), 꼬챙이 (kkochaeng'i) Latvian: iesms m Lithuanian: iešmas Macedonian: ра́жен m (rážen) Maori: pūrou, pūrau, paoka Nogai: сис (sis) Norwegian: Bokmål: spyd (no) n Nynorsk: spyd n Ottoman Turkish: شیش‎ (şiş) Persian: سیخ‎ (fa) (six) Polish: szpikulec (pl) m, rożen (pl) m Portuguese: espeto (pt) m Romanian: frigare (ro) f Russian: шампу́р (ru) m (šampúr), ве́ртел (ru) m (vértel) Scottish Gaelic: dealg f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ра́жањ m Roman: rážanj (sh) m Slovak: špíz m Spanish: brocheta (es) f, fierrito m, anticucho m, pincho (es), chuzo (es) Swedish: spett (sv) n Tagalog: pantuhog Thai: ตับ (th) (dtàp) Turkish: şiş (tr) Ukrainian: роже́н m (rožén), шампу́р m (šampúr) Uzbek: six (uz) Vietnamese: xiên (vi), xiên nướng thịt Welsh: gwäell f, gwaellen f

chess scenario

Bulgarian: вилица f (vilica) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: varras (fi) French: enfilade (fr) f German: Spieß (de) m Portuguese: espeto (pt) m Russian: ви́лка (ru) f (vílka) Swedish: dolk (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Albanian: (please verify) hell (sq) m

Verb

skewer (third-person singular simple present skewers, present participle skewering, simple past and past participle skewered)

1. To impale on a skewer.
2. (chess) To attack a piece which has a less valuable piece behind it.
3. (figurative) To severely mock or discredit.
   • 2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 7 December 2017:

     Parody, in its purest form, is an act of both mockery and appreciation. True masters of the practice possess a bone-deep understanding of their targets; they skewer because they love—or at least, because they’ve done their homework.

   • 2022 January 13, Mark Landler, “U.K. Monarchy and Government Plunge Into Simultaneous Crises”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331, image caption:

     A journalist outside 10 Downing Street on Thursday displaying one of the many tabloid covers skewering Mr. Johnson.

Translations

to impale on a skewer

Bulgarian: пронизвам (bg) (pronizvam) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: vastprikken met een vleespin, aan het spit rijgen Finnish: varrastaa (fi), seivästää (fi) French: embrocher (fr) Galician: espetar (gl), espichar German: aufspießen (de) Greek: σουβλίζω (el) (souvlízo), διατρυπώ (el) (diatrypó) Hungarian: nyársal, felnyársal (hu), nyársra húz Italian: impalare Japanese: 串に刺す (くしにさす, kushi nisasu), 串刺しにする (くしざしにする, kushizashi ni suru) Kapampangan: akbak, tungi Maori: pūrou Portuguese: empalar (pt) Russian: насаживать (ru) (nasaživatʹ), пронзать (ru) (pronzatʹ) Spanish: ensartar (es) Tagalog: tumundok Turkish: şişlemek (tr)

chess: to attack a piece with a less valuable piece behind

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: varrastaa (fi) French: enfilade (fr) f Russian: please add this translation if you can

Etymology 2

From skew +‎ -er.

Noun

skewer (plural skewers)

1. (rare) That which skews something.

Adjective

skewer

1. comparative form of skew: more skew

Anagrams

• krewes, reskew, werkes, Wesker