What is "skimming off"

Usage examples of "skimming off".

A heavy man in a stained canvas apron was skimming off some dead bait fish which floated on top of the water in one of the middle bins, using a small dip net, and dropping them in a bucket.

The fact that she'd been willing to settle for a minuscule cash salary suggested that she'd been filling her pockets some other way, either by skimming off the tenants' rent and fiddling the books, or maybe by a whole series of petty thefts -- these people were so disorganized, you could probably walk off with half their inventory and they'd never notice.

When his questioner asked for something, related thoughts floated to the surface of Jeffs mind, unbidden, beyond his control, and he could feel that other mind skimming off the thoughts as they rose, sampling them, storing them, using them as simply as if Jeff had been no more than a reference text.

I guess he was skimming off the top and I walked right into the middle of it.

Maybe he was holding out on his supplier or maybe skimming off the top and the other guy cut him up.

Then he brought it back and the ship took off easily, skimming off over the low jungle, building up speed.

They boil the milk, and skimming off the rich or creamy part as it rises to the top, put it into a separate vessel as butter.

And while much of that money found its way into the King's coffers, much more of it went to Winkle, who believed that skimming off the cream meant leaving at least a quarter of it for the King.

Meanwhile Shastri and Shardul were conspiring to make money by betraying their village, changing the tax assessment with the agent of the zamindar, shifting it to the zamindar's great advantage, with Shastri skimming off some for himself.