Skive

Skive is informal slang in Britain for slack, idle, shirk, skulk, and generally avoid responsibility and procrastinate. A skive in a school setting is a truant or playing hookey (American slang). In a military setting, to skive is not as severe as deserting, but slacking. In politics, London mayor Ken Livingstone griped about the US ambassador who had failed to pay a traffic congestion charge (citing diplomatic immunity), and made a remark during a televised interview using the word "skive": {{quote|It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge that everybody else is paying and not actually try and skive out of it like some chiselling little crook.

One anonymous reader to a BBC News story about persons taking an "extra sick day" made this comment disparaging public sector workers:

{{quote|Strange how public sector have a proven record of nearly 4x sick leave compared to the private sector; the latter too worried of losing their jobs. Public sector workers regard it their "right" to skive off to make up for being poorer paid. As a temp who only gets paid for work I've done, I've been amazed when I've had to cover public sector workers off sick on full pay sometimes for over a year! If it was the private sector they would have been fired.

Skive also means to cut into thin layers.