/ˈskʌl/, /skɑl/
OriginFrom Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”). Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.
Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skoltr, skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Middle Dutch scolle, scholle, Middle Low German scholle, schulle (“clod, sod”), and Scots skult, skolt. Compare also Old High German sciula, skiula (“skull”).
- The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
“All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slep”
“He was about to roar when, lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff, he saw a whole skull—perhaps a cow's skull, a skull, perhaps, with the teeth in it. Sobbing, but absent-mindedly, he ”
- These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.
“Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.”
- figurativelyThe mind or brain.
“My thoughts are flying around in my skull like fireflies in a jar, but all of a sudden I'm unbearably tired and can't stay awake.”
- A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.
- The crown of the headpiece in armour.
- ScotlandA shallow bow-handled basket.
- UK, obsolete, slangThe head or master of a college.
“Graduates […] will never forget that majestic stature, that massive brow, that commanding look, as its possessor paced the ante-chapel of his college, or took his seat of presidence among the skulls o”
- To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.
- transitiveTo strike the top of (the ball).
“Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.”
- To drink everything that remains in a glass by upending it.
“She nearly skulled the next drink and, despite feeling a little woozy, she felt a lot better.”
“That was at Jessica Eyre's sixteenth, and while nothing terrible had happened (I had skulled four Lemon Ruskis and fallen asleep in the garden), it was agreed by all that I had embarrassed myself.”
“He lifted his pint to skull what was left, but suddenly the whole thing— the smell of smoke and spilled beer, the flat Glasgow voices, the chiming of the cash register, the clatter of glasses— was som”
Formsskulls(plural) · scull(alternative, obsolete) · skulls(present, singular, third-person) · skulling(participle, present) · skulled(participle, past) · skulled(past)
Source: Wiktionary