skull
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
golf
hobbies
lifestyle
medicine
sciences
sports
Etymology: From 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”), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare Finnish skallo. Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.
Related to Old Norse skoltr (“brow”), skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Norwegian Nynorsk skult, skolt (“cranium, head (of a hammer); crag; hub”), Middle Dutch scolle, scholle, Middle Low German scholle, schulle (“clod, sod”), and Scots skult, skolt. Compare also Old High German sciula, skiula (“skull”). Possibly related to Latin celsus (“lofty, high, tall”), collis (“hill”).
Also related to Old Norse skǫllóttr, Icelandic sköllóttur, Old Swedish skallotter, Swedish skallig, Danish skaldet, Norwegian skallet (“bald”).
Inflected forms:
form: skulls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: scull
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: skulls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: skulling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: skulled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: skulled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: scull
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
pos: noun
examples: 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 slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.
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 ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms.
gloss: These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The mind or brain.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: 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.
gloss: A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.
pos: noun
gloss: The crown of the headpiece in armour.
pos: noun
gloss: A shallow bow-handled basket.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
gloss: The head or master of a college.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
slang
examples: 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 of Golgotha.
gloss: To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.
pos: verb
gloss: To strike the top of (the ball).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.
gloss: To drink everything that remains in a glass by upending it.
pos: verb
examples: 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 somehow too much.
He skulled his drink, set the glass down, then grabbed the bottle and ambled over to the other couch.
Synonyms: brainpan
harnpan
brain bucket
brainbox
cranium
skull
Related words: 💀
Derived words: Beauchene skull
cloverleaf skull
crackskull
crumbling skull rule
deathskull
exploded skull
fuckskull
get it through one's skull
get through one's thick skull
hot-skull
numbskull
numskull
out of one's skull
popskull
pseudo-skull
rattleskull
sapskull
skull and bones
skull and crossbones
skull base disease
skullbone
skullcap
skull-collecting ant
skullcup
skull drum
skullet
skull-fuck
skullfucker
skullful
skullish
skull-like
skulllike
skull-measurer
skull-pan
skullscape
skull session
skull-thatcher
Skull Valley
skully
sugar skull
thickskull
thin skull rule
whip some skull on
Translations: