skulduggery
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: An alteration of Scots sculduddery, sculdudrie (“adultery, unchaste behaviour; obscenity, lewdness”), of long-uncertain origin (probably a euphemism). Relation to skull is speculative at best and likely folk etymology. The American spelling skullduggery is in keeping with terms such as skillful and willful.
Inflected forms:
form: skulduggeries
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sculduggery
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: scullduggery
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: skullduggery
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A devious device or trick.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: A private company cannot get away with a skulduggery of that sort. Once it has paid out its money for taxes, it cannot reach into the public treasury and get it back and apply it on its amortization account.
And you, O student, might do worse than to investigate the assorted sculduggeries of this obscure trio: […]
The reports in his briefase had no bearing on war, peace, the dope traffic, the hydrogen bomb, or any of the other international skulduggeries that he associated with pursuers, men in trench coats, and wet sidewalks.
What exhibition of rapaciousness, race prejudice and political spoliation could be cheaper, commoner, or meaner? These are the little tyrannies and petty skullduggeries that make bitter the relations between the races.
gloss: Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: And I have another reason which I will express to my St Paul friends, and that is, that they have always been controlled in their political action here by a class of men who have always some traps set for the country members—by men who are always up to this border ruffian kind of trickery—this kind of skullduggery, as it is called in Minnesota. And now St. Paul allows herself to be controlled by these same border ruffian politicians.
How did Hercules (Herc. of antiquity) slay the Hydrant and cleanse the stables of Oregon? Did it all by main force, didn't he? Power? Shenanigan? Skulduggery? Of course he did.
[…] I discovered this particular one to be merely a shallow recess in the limestone, nowhere reëntrant to a distance of over forty feet, of the general proportions of a tin oven, and transacting an immense business of mystery (or what they call, as far west as this, "Shenandigan" and "Scullduggery") with those who gape at it from below, on the capital of a dark, overgrown portal, as big as the cave itself.
Mr. BURNS wanted to hear from the gentleman from Logan on his amendment, to see whether there was any "sculduggery" about it.
The crew manager collects all the money from his workers. They operate in more or less close formation, with the manager lurking around the edges, riding herd in his car or walking between cover points. Thus, the solicitor has little chance for skullduggery. His receipts are numbered and he has to account for them.
But in the writing, I prudently had changed the plot away from all the skulduggery I knew about, or suspected, or had heard about. Not until later did I learn that the skulduggery cooked up in my imagination was close to real-life skulduggery elsewhere.
Government members are now talking about skullduggery. Whose skullduggery are they referring to? If there is any skullduggery it will be because many eligible people are denied the opportunity to cast a valid vote, and that is all the more reason for the House to pass the Electoral Law Amendment Bill today. I do not want any skullduggery in elections at any time, […]
Exploiting his position as consul..., he promised to introduce legislation to help the two men overcome their present difficulties if they, in return, would give their backing to a bill granting Caeser a five-year command in the province of his choice. This naked political skulduggery provoked scemes of uproar in the senate
Derived words: skulduggerer
skulduggerist
skulduggerous
thugduggery
Translations: