Learn English – the origin of the phrase “grease the skids”

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What is the origin or derivation of the phrase "greasing the skids?"

The phrase connotes preparation, in such a way as to make the subsequent activities easier. Definitions are available various places (e.g., The Free Dictionary, Askville). The latter suggests a derivation (or derivative) "skid row" without citation.

I had always assumed the derivation of "skid" (that which is being "greased" in this sense) was a rather literal description of lubricating pallets or skids for moving or sliding them, or a skidder machine, but I can't find any good reference.

This blog suggests two other derivations that are somewhat similar: greasing the parts of a winch system over which items would be dragged, or in shipbuilding to grease the parts along which a newly-constructed ship would slide into the water.

Other phrases are at least superficially similar but perhaps unrelated, such as greasing the pan (but seeming to connote a specific, necessary prerequisite; in fact a comment on this answer also refers to "skid greasing"), or greasing palms (connoting bribery).

Best Answer

According to the following source the meaning has a literal origin, from the supports (skids) that were greased to help with very heavy weights:

To grease the skids:

  • is a phrase which means "to facilitate". Says You! claims that it arose in shipbuilding, where skids were used to facilitate getting the huge ships of the day into the water from the shipyards.

    • In fact, Richard Sher, the host of Says You!, read a quotation from May 31, 1911 referring to the amount of tallow used to grease the skids that took the Titanic into the water for the first time. The phrase is not in the OED, but we found a web site of Titanic trivia which notes that 23 tons of tallow and soft soap were used during the launch process.
      So it appears that the phrase may have been used in the shipbuilding industry. However, we also found quotations from the logging industry, the earliest in the Dubuque Daily Telegraph of October 2, 1901, suggesting that the skids used to move logs are more likely the source of the phrase:

    • "The bears had been causing trouble by eating the tallow used to grease the "skids" forming the roads over which the logs are hauled to the river."

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  • Note that the term skid road comes from the logging skids, as well, and, slightly corrupted, gave birth to the term skid row. (Note also that bears eating skid grease and, in the process, tearing up the skid roads, was apparently a common problem in the late 19th and early 20th centuries!)

Ngram: grease the skids, greasing the skids.

Google books suggest that early usages of the expression were from a nautical context:

  • Would you grease the skids or not ? Grease or oil should not be used; soft soap might be used to advantage if the pressure is great. What is it necessary to observe in laying a ground tier of bales or cases? 1st, That there is sufficient dunnage, ...(The nautical instructor -- J H. Bell 1865)
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