c1450 Jacob's Well (1900) 178 Lo, how þis skeet of perfyȝt sorwe sauyd þe chanoun fro wordly schame.

c1450 Jacob's Well (1900) 168 A skete is opyn a-forn, redy to deluyn in-to þe nesch wose, & redy to delyuere it out. A skete also sumdel, in þe heuyd, is raysed & reryd on bothe sydes... Also a skete hath a long handle.

1662 in Irish Statutes at Large (1765) II. 465 Skeets for whitsters, the skeet 1^s.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 206 That the Men in the Boats might be ready with Skeets and Buckets to put out any Fire these Savages might endeavour to fix to the Out-side of the Ship.

1750 T. R. Blanckley Naval Expositor 152 Skeets are for weting Yachts Sails, or the Ship's Sides.

1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Skeet, a..long scoop..used to wet the decks and sides of a ship in hot weather... This instrument..is also employed in small vessels to wet the sails, to render them more..efficacious in light breezes.

1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 284 Skeet, a piece of wood or iron with a groove in it, used for throwing water over the planks of a ship's sides.

1885 A. Brassey In Trades 13 A man stood on the gunwale throwing water into the sail with a long-handled metal ‘skeet’.

1885 A. Brassey In Trades 17 The men on board still ‘skeeting’ the water on to the sails.

1894 Outing 24 470/2 Our British-made sails were..kept decently flat only by drenching the luffs with water, a process called ‘skeating’.

1844 Manx Liberal 13 July Considering his great age, he is strong and lusty; and is marvellously addicted to a substantial breakfast and a skit in the newspapers.

1895 Peel City Guardian 9 Feb. I slipped in for a skeet.

1947 Isle of Man Weekly Times 31 May 7/4 These [curtains] are for the top winders. I'm not going to have them people from the double-deckers havin' a skeet in my bedroom.

1959 Isle of Man Daily Times 27 Oct. 15/2 He takes an odd skeet at the Courthouse grounds just to make sure no one has run away with his beloved shrubs.

2012 @pcorlett10 16 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Just had a skeet at the foxdale pitch. Defo playable that.

1900 Isle of Man Examiner 30 June 6/1 The masons seemed lek as if they wanted the skeet, but the praacher didn' make a shape to tell them, they didn't lek to ask, so they started work.

1961 Isle of Man Daily Times 9 May 2/3 We have missed the 'Times' out here: there is no skeet in London worth reporting.

1988 Rep. Proc. Tynwald Court 16 Mar. T1082 I am sure that all of us like a bit of skeet.

2015 @hollysumnerx 17 Apr. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) What's the skeet?

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) May 18 (heading) Skeet, the new sport.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) May 18 Since the prize of $100 was offered for the most suitable name for the new shooting sport.., nearly 10,000 suggestions have been received... After careful consideration, the name that seemed to apply itself the best was ‘skeet’, a very old form of our present word ‘shoot’... Mrs. Gertrude Hurlbutt, Dayton, Montana, sent in the suggestion.

1931 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 26 Oct. 3/2 Skeets [sic] is unlike regular trap-shooting in that the birds come from oppositely located houses and that, in one position two birds come at once.

1931 L. B. Smith (title) Better trapshooting. With a section on skeet.

1939 Country Life 11 Feb. p. xxi/3 (advt.) Clay bird shooting.—Practice and Coaching; every flight imitated; skeet; automatic traps.

1955 R. Churchill Game Shooting iii. i. 173 In 1927, I myself introduced the game of skeet to England.

1976 Webster's Sports Dict. 395/1 A round of skeet consists of 25 shots.

1979 R. Jaffe Class Reunion ii. ii. 139 He liked to dance, play golf, drink, shoot skeet, and laugh.

1942 Tee Emm (Air Ministry) 2 75 He has won the Skeet championship several times.

1975 Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 927/1 The first U.S. national skeet championships were held in 1935.

1952 Times 14 July 5/5 Colonel C. T. Edwinson..won the skeet (clay pigeon) contest in the world shooting championships here yesterday.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) Sept. 22 (heading) News from the skeet grounds.

1975 Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 925/2 On a skeet ground layout there are two spring-release traps.

1976 Shooting Times & Country Mag. 9–15 Dec. 5/1 (advt.) David Price..can testify to the suitability of his Miroku 800SW Skeet gun for game shooting.

1970 Cape Times 28 Oct. 24/4 Evgeny Petrov, of Russia, set an unofficial world record here, breaking 200 straight targets in the International skeet match of the world shooting championships here.

1942 Tee Emm (Air Ministry) 2 75 We had an article on Training with Clay Targets and the Skeet Range in our April, 1942, issue.

1970 G. Jackson Let. 21 May in Soledad Brother (1971) 255 Quietly..I would have my fronts open as many skeet, trap, rifle, and pistol ranges as I could rent space for in and around the black community.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) June 18 A group of about twenty good sportsmen in the town of Maynard, Mass. held their first skeet shoot.

1959 Times 1 Aug. 9/5 In addition to tests which simulate the different types of game-shooting, ‘skeet’ and ‘down the line’ shoots are held.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) June 18 If the skeet shooter were in hot competition..he would probably choose small shot.

1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. vi. 6/5 A rifle range for the skeet shooter.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) May 19/2 (advt.) The Western Practice Trap is ideal for ‘Skeet’ shooting, or for any kind of shotgun practice.

1971 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 11 June 7/3 Winner..was Graham Bailey,..who took the final of the Winchester Australia skeet shooting championship at the Belmont range.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) May 18/2 It is as easy to say skeet, skeeting, skeeter as it is to say shoot, shooting, shooter.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) Sept. 22/3 The game of skeeting is just like a ball game.

1926 National Sportsman (U.S.) Sept. 22/3 Hunt's Club and skeeting field is a public place.

1968 Daily Mail 23 Oct. 16/7 Skeeting is a precise form of shooting which is in the Olympic Games for the first time.

1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 97 You must skeete, even if you have to cut high-dutchers with your irons loose.

a1855 J. F. Kelly Humors of Falconbridge (1856) 251 I skeeted down them steps into the Common to let off my corked up risibilities.

1861 in L. C. Baker Hist. U.S. Secret Service (1867) v. 101 Burn the letter..and then get in your hole and skeet for Dixie.

1877 G. Stewart Shetland Fireside Tales 89 Skeet howe hame, guid folk!

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xviii. [Penelope] 714 That icy wind skeeting across from those mountains.

1924 C. Greer-Petrie Angeline of Hill Country 18 Here comes a mighty impudent lookin' darky a-skeetin' towards us.

1929 L. Robinson in Lett. Sean O'Casey (1975) I. 358 Johnny Perrin..got married yesterday and skeeted off to Wales for a few days.

1880 M. A. Courtney W. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 51/2 Skeet, v., to eject saliva through the teeth.

1886 J. J. H. Burgess Shetland Sketches 114 Every platch 'at he med skeetit it up and doon ower every ane 'at cam' near.

1909 Dial. Notes 3 370 Skeet, v. tr., to scoot (water), spew out of the mouth, especially between the teeth.

1912 J. Nicolson Hame-spun 45 I was skeetit frae head ta foot, sae 'at I'm not onlookin'.

1935 Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men i. iii. 64 Julius spat out into the yard, trying to give the impression that he was skeeting tobacco juice like a man.

1946 C. McCullers Member of Wedding i. 48 She loved to..lightly meddle with their things—with Mrs Marlowe's atomizer which skeeted perfume, the grey-pink powder puff, [etc.].

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 1266 Ȝiff þu..ȝeornesst tatt tu mote sket. Vpp cumenn inn till heoffne.

a1300 Havelok 1960 Mi dore he broken up ful sket, And wolde me binden hond and fet.

a1400 Coer de L. (W.) 5488 The ryche Sawdon, al so skete, A noble clerk he sente for thenne.

c1400 (?c1380) Patience l. 195 Þenne ascryed þay hym sckete, & asked ful loude [etc.].

c1400 St. Alexius (Laud 622) 493 Þe sergeauntz stirten out skeet, Þai founden hym, & kisten his feet.

a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. vii. 71 Thay were dampned sone and skete Vnto the pyne of hell.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 4716 Þe birrþ ben harrd wiþþ skill Onn ȝæness alle sinness. Forr þu mihht sket to nesshe ben Ȝæn þa þatt drihhtin wraþþenn.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2900 Forr mann maȝȝ sket to soffte ben Ȝæn þa þatt drihhtin wraþþenn.

c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 13434 This Askathes, the skathill, had sket sones thre.

c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 13672 Ascatus þe skete, for skath of his sones, Miche water he weppit.

a1400–50 Alexander 5040 Þen bownes agayn þe bald kyng, baldly he wepis, Þat he so skitly suld skifte.