skewer
Americannoun
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skewers
plural
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a long pin of wood or metal for inserting through meat or other food to hold or bind it in cooking.
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any similar pin for fastening or holding an item in place.
verb (used with object)
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skewers,
present (3rd person singular)
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skewered,
past participle, past
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skewering
present participle
noun
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a long pin for holding meat in position while being cooked, etc
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a similar pin having some other function
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chess a tactical manoeuvre in which an attacked man is made to move and expose another man to capture
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skewersimple
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skewerssimple
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have skeweredperfect
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has skeweredperfect
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am skeweringprogressive
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are skeweringprogressive
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is skeweringprogressive
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have been skeweringperfect progressive
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has been skeweringperfect progressive
Past
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skeweredsimple
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had skeweredperfect
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was skeweringprogressive
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were skeweringprogressive
-
had been skeweringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skewer
First recorded in 1670–80; earlier skiver < ?
Explanation
The pointed wooden stick you use to hold cubes of meat or vegetables together while they're cooking is called a skewer. You can also use a very long skewer to toast marshmallows over a campfire. As a verb, skewer means to push a skewer through food: "Would you skewer those shrimps, and toss them on the grill?" It's also an informal term meaning to criticize someone so harshly that it probably hurts them: "This opinion piece in the newspaper really skewers the President." Experts guess that skewer has a Scandinavian root, possibly the Old Norse skifa, "a cut or slice."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hunched over sizzling grills and shrouded in smoke, trainees at the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in southern China roast skewer after skewer of succulent beef tendon, perfecting the skills that could land them a restaurant job.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The Chargers’ social media team has done it again, this time using the “Halo” video game format to skewer each and every opponent on their schedule.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
Since they formed in 2019, the artists have gained an international reputation for employing the slick tropes of marketing and fashion to playfully skewer consumerism and supply-chain systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
If you want to go the skewer route: pick one cheese and one meat, attach them to a long toothpick separated by some sort of produce like a tomato, strawberry, grape or basil leaf.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2025
I wander toward the fire, digging through brush, looking for sticks to skewer the meat.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
They’re surprisingly warm inside, and ours made a cozy setting for pork belly skewers, crab puffs and smoked cocktails.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
The app has boosted lesser-known businesses and sent tourists in droves to unconventional locations such as Zibo, a quiet industrial city in Shandong, after its cheap, marinated barbecue skewers went viral.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
Standout dishes include the grilled salmon skewers with peanut dipping sauce, crispy pork belly, and any of the restaurant’s jeow dipping sauces paired with sticky rice.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
He skewers the line that tech stocks are reasonably priced on forward earnings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Pong wished with all his might that one of the skewers would fall off.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
I worked at a magazine when the first film, which lightly skewered Anna Wintour, came out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
For that, Kelly was skewered on stage by Ben Shapiro, who incidentally was responsible for giving Owens her first podcast at the Daily Wire.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
"Customers understand that it's a luxury dish," chef Tomoyuki Takashino said from behind the stove as he skewered an eel he had just killed and filleted.
From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025
Germany's kebab industry would have particularly skewered, as the quintessential high street doner has evolved over the decades to be rather different than the original from Turkey.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2025
The tiny golden cup, skewered by the handle on the sword’s blade, was flung into the air.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
He is also a deft social satirist, no more so than when skewering his characters’ politically correct pretensions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
For its upcoming Los Angeles venue, experiential art firm Meow Wolf will focus on the art of storytelling, with a specific eye toward skewering our city’s moviemaking magic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
In the classroom, trainees crowded around instructor Luo Duocheng as he demonstrated slicing a slab of beef, marinating it, and skewering the meat to form identical kebabs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
In his heyday, in the 1990s, Mr. Murphy was the rare political commentator who commanded a countrywide audience, skewering Canada’s elites as well as its sometimes fragile sense of nationhood.
From New York Times ● May 18, 2024
The medium began to stalk around the clearing, skewering the villagers with his gaze.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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