skelp
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /skɛlp/
Forms: form: skelps
form: skelping
form: skelped
form: skelped
Etymology: From Middle English skelpen, probably of imitative origin. The noun is from Middle English skelp, from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: But Mistress Munro would up and be at the door and in she'd yank Andy by the lug, and some said she'd take down his breeks and skelp him, but maybe that was a lie.
ref: 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24:
text: My stomach was just sore and I was rubbing it. But he just reached and skelped me on the leg and I fell down and he waited for me to get up and he skelped me on the b*m.
ref: 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 67:
glosses: To beat or slap with the hand.
examples: text: ... hither blith comes tinker John, Who skelps the kettle, and sweet tunes the drone, […]
ref: 1804, George Galloway, The Battle of Luncarty, Or the Valiant Hays Triumphant Over the Danish Invaders, page 15:
text: "Fa' in! fa' in!" he's yelpin : The fifes are whuslin' loud and clear, An ' sair the drums they're skelpin'.
ref: 1819, Newcastle dialect, A collection of songs, comic and satirical, chiefly in the Newcastle dialect. By mess. Thompson, Shield and others, page 17:
text: ... sewing, hammering, and "skelping away at the leather."
ref: 1877, Samuel Smiles, Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnean Society, page 183:
glosses: To beat, pound or hammer.
examples: text: My fair opponents skelp me aff,[…]
ref: 1861, Roger Quinn, The Heather Lintie: Being the Poetical Pieces, Spiritual and Temporal, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, page 112:
text: We'll skelp him to hell, / where his frien's will him crown,[…]
ref: 1876, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 126:
text: A byke was regarded as a glorious capture, not only for the sake of the honey, but because of the fun the boys had in skelpin' out the bees.
ref: 1879, Samuel Smiles, Life of a Scotch Naturalist, Thomas Edward: Associate of the Linnean Society, page 17:
glosses: To drive by blows; to drive (hard), to cause to move rapidly.
examples: text: […] the lassie became extremely wild, ran like a hare, and […] skelped home in a crack, on the "light side of her foot," to Barniewater.
ref: 1824, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia: or the Original Antiquated and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland, page 47:
text: ... that little plaguy breed / That skelp aboot in youngster's hair.
ref: 1843, Thomas Wilson, The Pitman's Pay; and Other Poems, page 49:
text: ... up cam my young Lord Evandale, skelping as fast as his horse could trot, and twenty red-coats at his back.
ref: 1855, Walter Scott, Waverly novels, library edition, page 7:
text: ... I saw Pat skelping along without a cap or a hat on his sun-burnt hair. 'What's the hurry, Pat?' says I. 'I'm going to see the execution,' says he.
ref: 1875, Patrick Kennedy, The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle of the County of Wexford, page 105:
text: […] sha […] com skelpin yam, as thof summat had bont her, Or thoosans o' rattens an mice was behont her. Lawk! hoo sha did[…]
ref: 1889, John Nicholson (School principal), The Folk Speech of East Yorkshire, page 46:
glosses: To move briskly along; to run.
examples: text: ... more than halfway to the summit / A rain squall down on them did plummet, / Skelping down harder by the minute / We'll wait […]
ref: (Can we date this quote?), John McCuaig, The Sennachie, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 158:
text: "Lord Harry only knows what sort of storm is skelping down." They two knew what sort of storm it was, when they reached the long pasture that raked up into the Logie highroad. The wind came, and the snow, and biting hail - came ravening on the track of the wild-geese[…]
ref: 2021 August 30, Henry James Halliwell Sutcliffe, Storm: A Tale of Nature's Wrath and Human Resilience, Good Press:
glosses: To rain heavily; (of rain) to fall.