Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep,
On sounding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,
The then gay land is maddened all to joy. Thomson.

Roller skate. See under Roller.

* Some of the species are used for food, as the European blue or gray skate (Raia batis), which sometimes weighs nearly 200 pounds. The American smooth, or barn-door, skate (R. lævis) is also a large species, often becoming three or four feet across. The common spiny skate (R. erinacea) is much smaller.

Skate's egg. See Sea purse. -- Skate sucker, any marine leech of the genus Pontobdella, parasitic on skates.