scuttle
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: nautical
transport
Etymology: From Middle English scuttel, scutel, from Old English scutel (“dish, platter”), from Latin scutella, diminutive form of Latin scutra (“flat tray, dish”), perhaps related to Latin scutum (“shield”); compare Dutch schotel and German Schüssel.
Inflected forms:
form: scuttles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: skuttle
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: scuttles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: scuttling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: scuttled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: scuttled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: skuttle
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A container like an open bucket (usually to hold and carry coal).
pos: noun
examples: All through dinner—which was long, in consequence of such accidents as the dish of potatoes being mislaid in the coal skuttle and the handle of the corkscrew coming off and striking the young woman in the chin—Mrs. Jellyby preserved the evenness of her disposition.
On the way, with superior precaution, we got out our saucepan. The kitchen fire was red, but low; the coal-cellar was locked, and there was nothing in the scuttle but a little coal-dust and the piece of brown paper that is put in to keep the coals from tumbling out through the bottom where the hole is.
gloss: A broad, shallow basket.
pos: noun
gloss: A dish, platter or a trencher.
pos: noun
tags: Northern-England
Scotland
obsolete
gloss: To cut a hole or holes through the bottom, deck, or sides of (as of a ship), for any purpose.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The Vichy French fleet in Toulon in 1942 scuttled itself as a final "fuck you" to the invading Germans.
"My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards, dishonours the women, and murders the crew."
In this version, the Patriot was boarded by pirates (or the crew and passengers were overpowered by mutineers), who murdered everyone and then looted and scuttled the ship.
To lay the foundation for an all-weather dock at Shelter Bay, he filled an old barge with worn-out grindstones from the Thorold paper mill, then scuttled the vessel.
He decided that before scuttling the ship to prevent her falling into enemy hands he had to get the dead and wounded ashore.
In recent years, steel-hull vessels up to 350 feet long have been scuttled in stable sandy-bottom areas, amassing new communities of fish and invertebrates and easing the stress and strain on the coral reef by creating new fishing and diving sites.
gloss: To deliberately wreck one's vehicle (of any sort).
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: The third and equally important fact is that at the time of gear retraction more than ample runway remained to brake to a successful stop and even had there been a fire in the left engine no necessity existed for scuttling the aircraft.
gloss: To undermine or thwart oneself or one's position or property, especially deliberately.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: The candidate had scuttled his chances with his unhinged outburst.
The proposed merger of the Morgan Stanley Group and the S. G. Warburg Group collapsed today, scuttling plans by the companies to create one of the world's most powerful investment banks.
But the $3.5 billion ignition facility, derided by some critics as taxpayer-financed science fiction, is running into new challenges that may further delay and perhaps scuttle its goal.
By pushing for such an extreme and indefensible position, the old-media moguls sparked a tremendous outcry, which caused the legislation to be redrafted and then scuttled, at least temporarily
Derived words: coal scuttle
coal-scuttle bonnet
coal scuttle helmet
Translations: