skull

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”). Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.^[1]

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”).

• scull (obsolete)

• enPR: skŭl, IPA^(key): /skʌl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: scull
• Rhymes: -ʌl

skull (plural skulls)

1. (anatomy) The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

     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.

2. These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Prologue:

     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.

3. (figuratively) The mind or brain.
   • 2006, Bart Yates, The Brothers Bishop:

     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.

4. A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.
5. The crown of the headpiece in armour.
6. (Scotland) A shallow bow-handled basket.

• brainpan
• harnpan

• bone
• head

• Thesaurus:skull

• cranium

• 💀

skull (third-person singular simple present skulls, present participle skulling, simple past and past participle skulled)

1. To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.
2. (transitive, golf) To strike the top of (the ball).
   • 2002, Robert C. Knox, Golf Balls Are Female, page 148:

     Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.

3. To drink everything that remains in a glass by upending it.
   • 2016, Karen Nolan, The Y Necklace:

     She nearly skulled the next drink and, despite feeling a little woozy, she felt a lot better.

   • 2021, Mary Fifield, Kristin Thiel, Fire & Water:

     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.

   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 337:

     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.

   • 2022, Lena Moore ·, Coveted:

     He skulled his drink, set the glass down, then grabbed the bottle and ambled over to the other couch.

See school (“a multitude”).

skull (plural skulls)

1. Obsolete form of school (“a multitude”).^[1]
   • 1586, William Warner, Albion’s England:

     A knavish skull of boys and girls did pelt at him.

   • 1601, Philemon Holland (translator), Pliny the Elder (author), The Historie of the World. Commonly called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndvs., book IX, chapter xv: “Of the names and natures of many fishes.”:

     These fishs, togither with the old Tunies and the young, called Pelamides, enter in great flotes and skulls, into the sea Pontus, for the sweet food that they there find: and every companie of them hath their fever all leaders and captaines; and before them all, the Maquerels lead the way; which, while they be in the water, have a colour of brimstone; but without, like they be to the rest.

• Kulls

An alternative form of skuld (“debt”), from Old Norse skuld, from Proto-Germanic *skuldiz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéltis. Compare gälla and gälda.

Used to indicate for whom or why something is done.

• IPA^(key): /skɵlː/

skull c

1. sake

   Jag är glad för din skull

   I'm happy for you (for your sake)

   Jag gjorde det för din skull

   I did it for you (for your sake)

   för gamla tiders skull

   for old times' sake

   Han dog för sin övertygelses skull

   He died for the sake of his convictions

   Hon gjorde det för rättvisans skull

   She did it for the sake of justice

   Jag gjorde ett litet misstag, men för den skull behöver du inte bli elak

   I made a small mistake, but that doesn't mean you have to be mean ("but for that sake ((just) because of that) you don't have to be mean" – "för den skull" can be considered an idiomatic phrase)

   Gränssnittet är enkelt utan att för den skull vara begränsat

   The interface is simple without (despite being simple) being limited ("The interface is simple without for that sake (without, because of that) being limited")

   För edra hjärtans hårdhets skull tillstadde Moses eder att skiljas från edra hustrur (archaic language)

   Moses because of the hardness of your hearts (for the sake of the hardness of your hearts) suffered you to put away your wives (Matthew 19:8)

• skuld
• skyld
• skylla

• skull in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• skull in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• skull in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• kulls