SKIVING Synonyms: 25 Similar and Opposite Words

skiving

verb

present participle of skive

as in whittling

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for skiving

Verb

The film eventually ballooned to six hours before Gibney began whittling it back.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2026
Voters set up races for four Orange County commission seats in November by whittling casts of candidates to two in districts 2, 6, 7 and 8.

— Stephen Hudak, The Orlando Sentinel, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of whittling

Verb

After finally shaving his beard off, Colbert concluded the interview by gifting Kimmel something special from his show.

— Abid Rahman, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2026
Colbert had no hesitation about taking the tool to his facial hair, shaving it off and returning to his recognizable clean-shaven look.

— Michelle Lee, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of shaving

Verb

As a member of the mint family, horehound has the tendency to spread aggressively, but this can be prevented by shearing the inconspicuous flowers, which is also done to expose the evergreen foliage.

— Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 6 Sep. 2026
Cut individual branches rather than shearing the shrub like a hedge.

— Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 31 Aug. 2026

Definition of shearing

Verb

Big companies like UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and others are chasing higher profits by pruning benefits, after investors grew dissatisfied with margins that were smaller than the insurers had promised.

— Bob Herman, STAT, 1 Oct. 2026
Pruning ‘Kaleidoscope’ Abelia ‘Kaleidoscope’ Abelia naturally develops a low mounding crown that requires little pruning to maintain.

— Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 29 Sep. 2026

Definition of pruning

Verb

This change is apparent in the fact that European governments, too, are cutting funding for religious freedom advocacy.

— Matthew Schmitz, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026
In a sign of growing staff unrest over the steady stream of cost-cutting announcements across the BBC, some workers made their feelings known on a Microsoft Teams call earlier this week.

— Jake Kanter, Deadline, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of cutting

Verb

Since their debut in 1986, American Girl has shrunk their historical line significantly–including paring down the traditional six-book set for each historical character into two streamlined texts.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Oct. 2026
Boeing shares were up as much as 3% in premarket trading before paring back some of those gains.

— Sawdah Bhaimiya, CNBC, 29 Sep. 2026

Definition of paring

Verb

But while the wider economy has come under pressure, with inflation hovering above 4% and the government trimming its economic growth forecasts, Brazil has also been an economic beneficiary of higher oil prices as a net oil exporter.

— Chloe Taylor,Thomas Da Graca Barlow, CNBC, 2 Oct. 2026
The hair architect responsible for trimming Lawrence’s texture on Tuesday has not yet been revealed.

— Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 29 Sep. 2026

Definition of trimming

Verb

The photo editing tools are also limited to basic actions like cropping and rotating.

— Jordan Minor, PC Magazine, 14 Sep. 2026
Meta released its Content Seal AI watermark recently, but Reuters found that simply cropping the images a bit would often eliminate the watermark.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 29 July 2026

Definition of cropping

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

skives

skiving

skivvies

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Skiving.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skiving. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of skiving

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

inscrutable

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Popular in Wordplay

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes