Skating means moving smoothly across a surface on special shoes with wheels or blades attached to the bottom. Ice skating uses metal blades that glide over frozen water, while roller skating uses wheels that roll over pavement or wooden floors.

Skating has been around for centuries. People first strapped bones to their boots to slide across frozen canals in Scandinavia over a thousand years ago. Today, skating takes many forms: figure skaters perform elegant jumps and spins on ice, hockey players battle for the puck at high speeds, and skateboarders do tricks on ramps and rails using boards with wheels.

Learning to skate takes practice and courage. At first, you wobble and your ankles feel weak. You have to trust your balance in a completely new way. But once you get the hang of it, skating gives you a thrilling sense of speed and freedom.

The word also describes moving smoothly and easily through something, like skating through an easy homework assignment. And when someone is skating on thin ice, they're taking a dangerous risk or pushing their luck too far, like the literal danger of skating over ice that might crack beneath you.