Meaning & use
skid marks
Last updated
“skid marks” is a form of “skid mark”.
Meanings
nounplural
Dark lines left on a road by tires that slid when a vehicle braked hard.
Grammar: Usually plural: long skid marks on the road.
Patterns
- skid marks on the road
- skid marks from something
Police studied the skid marks to work out how fast the car had been going.
Long skid marks led up to the broken fence.
You can see fresh skid marks at the corner.
nounplural
Dark lines left on a surface, such as a floor, by something that slid or scraped across it.
Grammar: Used for rubber marks on floors, tracks or ice.
Patterns
- skid marks on the floor
The basketball shoes left skid marks on the gym floor.
The janitor scrubbed the skid marks from the hallway.
Bike tires left skid marks on the driveway.
nounpluralinformalhumorous
Stains in underwear, mentioned humorously or rudely.
Grammar: A crude, informal joke; avoid in polite conversation.
The comedian made a joke about skid marks in the laundry.
Parents sometimes find skid marks in a child's underwear.
The movie scene relied on a crude skid marks gag.
Word forms
| singular | skid mark |
|---|
Common combinations
- leave skid marks
- The truck left skid marks across both lanes.
- long skid marks
- Long skid marks showed that the driver had braked hard.
- skid marks on the road
- Skid marks on the road helped investigators.
- fresh skid marks
- Fresh skid marks pointed toward the ditch.
- follow the skid marks
- The officer followed the skid marks to the crash site.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tire marks
- Tire marks is a neutral term for any trace left by tires, while skid marks specifically come from sliding tires.
- tracks
- Tracks can be left by rolling wheels, but skid marks show sudden braking.
- scuff marks
- Scuff marks are marks left by rubbing, usually on shoes or floors, and are less dark and long than skid marks.
- burnout marks
- Burnout marks come from spinning the wheels while stationary, not from braking.
Word family
Commonly confused: skid marks or skid row?
skid marks vs skid row
Skid row is a poor area of a city, and the phrase is unrelated to marks left by tires.
Practice
The investigator measured the ____ on the wet road to estimate how fast the car had been traveling.
Choose one answer.
Skid marks are left by tires that slide during hard braking. The other options are part of the road but give no evidence of speed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “skid marks”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.