▪ I. skull, n.1
(skʌl)
Forms: α. 3–5 scolle, 4–5 scol, scoll, 5 scole; 5 skolle, 5–6 skoll, 6 skol. β. 3, 5 schulle, 4–7 sculle (6 scoulle, 7 scoule), 6–7 scul, 6–9 scull. γ. 4–6 skulle, 6–7 skul, 5– skull.
[Of obscure origin: first prominent in south-western texts of the 13–14th centuries, usually in the form scolle.
A foreign origin is indicated by the initial sc-, sk-, but the locality of the early examples is against connexion with ON. skoltr (Norw. skolt, skult, Sw. skult, dial. skulle) skull, poll, or with Norw. dial. skul, skol shell (of nuts or eggs). There is correspondence of form with Du. schol, MLG. schulle, MHG. (and G.) scholle (OHG. scolla, scollo) earthy crust, turf, piece of ice (cf. also Sw. skolla metal plate), but there is no evidence that these were ever used in the sense of ‘skull’. The same difficulty applies to OF. escuelle, escule dish, nor would this readily have assumed the early form scolle.]
1. a. The bony case or frame containing or enclosing the brain of man or other vertebrate animals; the cranium; also, the whole bony framework or skeleton of the head.
| α c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 168 Robert de brok..þoruȝ þe scolle smot is swerd. c 1330 King of Tars 521 Summe pleyed of the heved, And summe heore scolles icleved. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 115 Golgotha is to menynge a baar scolle. For whan..mysdoeres were þere byheded, þe hedes were i-left þere. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 216 Watir þat is gaderid in children hedis, ouþer it is wiþinne þe scolle or wiþoute þe scolle. c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 79 Take a plouer, and breke his skoll, and pull him dry. 1506 Kal. Sheph. (Sommer) 102 In the skol ben two bones which ben called parietalles that holdeth the brayne close and stedfast. |
| β a 1225 Ancr. R. 296 Ne ȝif him neuer inȝong auh tep him oðe schulle, uor he is eruh ase beore þeron. c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 8 Greue, fountayne, et haterel, Sched, molde, and sculle. 1382 Wyclif 2 Kings ix. 35 Thei founden not, no bot the scul, and the feet, and gobitis of the hond. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 450/2 Sculle, of the heede, craneum. c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 80 Lete the sculle be hole. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 238 They haue the bones of the sculles of theyr heades foure tymes thycker..then owres. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xxvii. 180 Small rounde heades..with little hooles in them, like to a dead scull. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 548 All these muscles are seated on the backe⁓side of the Eye within the cauity of the Scull. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 34 The Carotid Arteries..after they have enter'd the Scull. 1781 Cowper Convers. 780 That truth itself is in her head as dull, And useless, as a candle in a scull. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 236 Ghosts being seen about..at night, with bare sculls and blue lights in their sockets. |
| γ 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 371 Þis Albuinus had..overcome þe kyng of Gispides, and i-made hym a cuppe of his skulle forto drinke of. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 128 The kyng in audience aboute Hath told it was hire fader Skulle. 1579 G. Baker Guydo's Quest. 11 b, Other [bones] be..saw⁓wise, as y⊇ skul of the head. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 440 The skull or cranium is all that bone which compasseth the braine and after-brain like a helmet. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxxi. 124 There were also other vessels laden with dead mens skuls. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 428 A piece of a skull, which had belonged to..Oliver Cromwell. 1830 R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 209 The great veins of the skull or the sinuses. 1877 J. A. Allen Amer. Bison 454 Variations in the form of the skull are often strikingly apparent. |
b. The head as the proper seat of thought or intelligence. Commonly with allusion to dullness of intellect.
| 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurel 82 Better a dum mouthe than a brainles scull. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 121 Thou hast spoke..as if thy eldest sonne should be a foole: whose scull, Ioue cramme with braines. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 488 Your Sexe, Whose empty Sculles..your selues peruersely vexe. a 1795 Cowper Pairing Time 8 Ev'n the child who knows no better..Must have a most uncommon skull. 1823 in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 338 It has at last been hammered into their skulls, that the interest cannot be paid in full, if wheat sells low. 1857 Reade Course True Love 99 We..have not an idea of our own in our sculls. |
(
b) In slang
phr. out of one's skull, out of one's mind, crazy. Also succeeding
pa. pple., as
bored out of one's skull, beside oneself with boredom, bored stiff.
| 1967 Listener 7 Dec. 740/2, 12 good men and true, glumly spruce, resigned to a long haul and bored, bored out of their skulls. 1968 T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test xv. 205 They [sc. the Beatles] have brought this whole mass of human beings to the point where they are..out of their skulls. 1973 W. Sheed People will always be Kind ii. v. 301 You'd have had to be out of your skull not to in those days. 1978 G. Vidal Kalki iii. 83, I thought that Kalki was out of his skull. |
† c. slang. The head of an Oxford College or Hall.
Obs. Cf. golgotha 2.
| 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 11 (1726) 55 The Sculls..clapp'd a Degree upon his back. Ibid. No. 30. 167 Another gentleman..who has lately given a certain learned Scull great offence. 1864 Slang Dict. 223 Scull or Skull, the head or Master of a College,..but nearly obsolete. |
d. A representation of a human skull, as an emblem or reminder of death or mortality. Also
skull and crossbones, a representation of a bare skull with two thigh-bones crossed beneath it as an emblem of death,
esp. as depicted on a pirate's flag.
Cf. the Jolly Roger s.v. Roger2 4. Also
attrib. and
fig. Hence
skull-and-cross-boned adj.| 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 898 She was a perpetual memento mori; a skull and cross-bones would hardly have been more efficacious. 1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 40 Here are the typical marrow-bones, skull, and sand glass. 1911 D. H. Lawrence Let. c11 May (1979) I. 268 I've got a grinning skull-and-crossbones headache. 1924 Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror xvii. 254 This was open rebellion. This was hoisting the skull and cross-bones. 1928 J. M. Barrie Peter Pan in Plays v. 73 We see what is happening on the deck of the Jolly Roger, which is flying the skull and crossbones. 1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 June 481/4 The pirates on the Spanish Main in the old skull-and-crossbones days were pleasant and picturesque fellows. 1931 A. Ransome Swallowdale iii. 50 A small varnished dinghy..was sailing in between the headlands. At the masthead was a black flag with the skull and crossbones on it in white. 1955 J. Kenward Suburban Child xxxii. 94 Further down the street where I lived there lived a pirate five years old, the very thing in appearance as in temperament, with a cutlass (silver painted) and a black triangular hat (skull-and-cross-boned) both home-made by his understanding parents. 1982 Times 5 July 4/3 The nuclear submarine..[was] flying the Jolly Roger to denote their success in sinking the Argentine cruiser... The Skull-and-Crossbones denotes a ‘kill’. |
e. slang. (So much)
a skull, per person.
Cf. head n.1 7 b.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 299 They chop up the rope after and sell the bits for a few bob a skull. 1950 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 213/2 ‘What difference would the five of clubs make? Sure he had a cast-iron hand.’ The Sergeant drew slow caressing fingers along his jaw. ‘That'll be two bob a skull, boys,’ he reminded them pleasantly. |
† 2. a. The crown or top of the head; the sconce, the (bare) scalp.
Obs.| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 353 Loke þat þou be armed sad, & hele þy bare scolle. c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 15 As piled as an Ape was his skulle. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 586 Glabella, the schulle. 1611 Cotgr., Calvaire, the (bare) skull, or skalpe of the head. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1638) 16 A third..shaves here and there, the bald scull appearing in many places. |
† b. Used to render L.
cervix, the back of the neck.
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif Deut. xxviii. 48 He shal put on an yren ȝok vpon thi scol. ― 1 Sam. iv. 18 He felle fro the litil seet.., and the scullis brokun, he is deed. |
† 3. A skull-cap of metal or other hard material; a close-fitting head-piece.
Obs.| α 1522 Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 400 No kynde of armor, as shorte of maylle, ne skoll. 1536 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 136 [He] had a paire of brexen journeys on his backe,..and a skoll on his head. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 268/1 Scull harnesse for the heed, segrette. 1557 Act 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary c. 2 §2 One Murrien or Sallet,..and one Steele Cappe or Sculle. 1611 Cotgr., Secrete, a thinne steele cap, or a close scull worne vnder a hat, &c. a 1674 Milton Hist. Mosc. Wks. 1851 VIII. 478 Thir Armour is a Coat of Plate, and a Scull on thir Heads. |
| γ a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 235 Suche as should beare Morysh Pyckes..had no harnesse but skulles. 1600 J. Dymmok Ireland (1843) 7 Armed with a shert of maile, a skull, and a skeine. a 1674 Milton Hist. Mosc. Wks. 1851 VIII. 517 They saw the Emperor and his Son..each with a Skull of Pearl on thir bare Heads. |
4. A crust of solidified steel or other metal formed on a ladle, etc., by the partial cooling of the molten material. Also without article.
| 1773 Wright's Pat. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec. App. ii. 161 Making Malleable Iron..from Scull and Cinder Iron or other Cast Metal. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 326/2 To keep the blown metal in fusion and prevent ‘skulls’ forming when it is run out into a casting ladle. 1894 Daily News 12 Feb. 6/6 The process does not produce ‘skull’, and small quantities can therefore be dealt with without in any way chilling the metal. |
5. attrib. In sense ‘of or pertaining to, belonging to or connected with, the skull’, as
skull-bone,
skull-eye,
skull-form,
skull-neck,
skull-pan,
skull-piece,
skull-skin,
skull-wall, etc.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 575 The muscle of the eare springing from the pericranium or skull [s]kin. 1746 W. Thompson R. Navy Adv. (1757) 39 The Scull Pieces of Oxen and Hogs. 1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 759/2 The skull-bones are freely supplied with blood. 1891 Archaeol. LIII. 212 A heavy stroke through the crown into the side of the skull-pan. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 239 The pressure of the cranial contents against the skull-wall. Ibid. 644 A tympanitic note on skull-percussion. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 509 His eye agonising in his flat skullneck. 1928 Blunden Retreat 32 The stone skull-eyes look down most drearily. |
b. In sense ‘in which skulls are reposited’, as
skull-box,
skull-house.
| 1628–9 Sarum Churchw. Acc. (Swayne, 1896) 312 Henge for the skulle howse dore. 1654–5 Ibid. 330 Locke for y⊇ skull house dore. 1859 Jephson Brittany vi. 67 In the apertures between the uprights which supported the roof [of the charnel-house] were heaped up skull-boxes. |
c. In sense ‘formed or made of a skull’, as
skull-cup,
skull-goblet,
skull wine-cup.
| 1825 Hogg Q. Hynde 280 Their skull-cups fill'd unto the brim. 1854 G. Greenwood Haps & Mishaps 27 The housekeeper took from a costly cabinet the famous and fearful skull wine-cup. 1856 Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1870) II. 221 Where..the skull goblet has often gone its rounds. |
6. Comb. a. With
pa. or
pres. pples., as
skull-built,
skull-covered,
skull-crowned,
skull-dividing,
skull-hunting; also
skull-like adj.| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 145 A scull cround hat of the fashion of an olde deepe porringer. 1641 W. Hooke New England's Tears 10 Their instruments are..skul-dividing Halberds. 1805 Southey Madoc ii. xxii, The skull-built towers, the files of human heads. 1809–10 Shelley Bigotry's Victim 2 Dares the lama..The lion to rouse from his skull-covered lair? 1839–52 Bailey Festus 523 The charnel-house of Time—where skull-like orbs..Defiled the purview. 1898 C. S. Horne Story L.M.S. 407 The teachers had themselves been skull-hunting cannibals. |
b. With agent-nouns, as
skull-cracker,
skull-hunter,
skull-slinger,
skull-thacker,
skull-thatcher.
| 1706 E. Baynard Cold Baths ii. 394 Rats-bane [a physician].., who was but a young Skull-slinger then. 1719 Ramsay 2nd Answ. Hamilton ii, But me ye ne'er sae crouse had craw'd Ye poor scull-thacker! 1852 Mundy Antipodes (1857) 181 A splendid green-stone Meri, heirloom of her deceased lord, and the skull-cracker no doubt of a hundred foes. 1859 Slang Dict. 94 Skull thatchers, straw bonnet makers,—sometimes called ‘bonnet-builders’. 1863 M. E. Braddon Aurora Floyd xxiv, ‘I'll find my skull-thatcher if I can,’ said Captain Prodder, groping for his hat amongst the brambles. 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 62 In spite of the depredations of ‘skull hunters’, we rode a considerable distance over ground..thickly strewn with human bones. 1902 J. Chalmers in Life (1905) xx. 98/2 That they are skull-hunters I do not doubt. |
7. Special combs.:
skull-buster U.S. slang, something that taxes the mind; a complicated problem;
† skull butterfly (see
quot.);
skull-eel, the sharp-nosed eel,
Anguilla vulgaris;
skull-fish,
† (
a) some fish supposed to resemble a skull; (
b) a whalebone whale above two years of age;
† skull-man (see
quot.);
† skull-moss, a greenish kind of moss growing on skulls long exposed to the air;
† skull-seam, a suture on the skull;
skull session U.S. slang, a discussion, conference;
skull-vein (see
quot.).
| 1926 University Mag. (Univ. Va.) Oct. 17 *Skull-buster, a particularly hard course. 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues i. 18 Most of my skullbusters got solved at The School. |
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIII. 721/2 The *skull butterfly is another singular species, so called from its head resembling in some degree a death's head or human skull. |
| 1883 Day Fishes Gt. Brit. II. 243 Eel, *skull-eel, or brown⁓eel. |
| 1668 Charleton Onomast. 154 Orbis,..the Globe, or *Scull-fish. |
| 1725 Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 257 After this, they [whales yielding whalebone] are term'd Scull-fish, their Age not being known, but only guess'd at by the Length of the Bone in their Mouths. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Skull-fish, the technical name among whalers for..a whale which is more than two years old. |
| 1659 Torriano, Capellétti, certain soldiers serving on horse-back with steele-caps, called with us *skull-men, or black-skulls. |
| 1631 W. Foster Hoplocrisma-Spongvs 40 *Scull-mosse or bones,..Mummy and the Fat of Man..comprehend the corporeall perfection of Man. 1681 Grew Musæum ii. iii. iv. 237 Of the same Species with the Skull-Mosse. |
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 576 The Nose..serveth as a Gutter To void the Excrements of grossest matter; As by the *Scull-seams and the Pory Skin Evaporate those that are light and thin. |
| 1959 J. Blish Clash of Cymbals iv. 97 Web and Estelle..had become accepted silent partners at such *skull-sessions. 1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xi. 49 Joe was ready for the skull session. |
| 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 98/2 The peculiar character of the veins commonly called *scull veins, from their strong resemblance to the sutures of the scull, which traverse the blocks of white limestone. |
Add:
[1.] [c.] For
def. read:
slang.
Orig., the head of an Oxford College or Hall (
obs.). Subsequently
gen., one who is in charge, a chief or head; also, an expert.
Cf. golgotha n. 2. (Further examples.)
App. obsolescent in the
U.K. by mid-19th
cent., but soon afterwards recorded in the
U.S. and subsequently
Austral.| 1880 Slang Dict. 32/1 Skull, the head of the house; the President of the United States; the Governor; the head man. 1944 D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 104 Now, this skull was in there, Jack, he was frantic. 1948 G. H. Johnston Death takes Small Bites v. 107 ‘Who does he fix the deal with?’ ‘God knows! D'ye think the skulls tell us that?’ 1964 ― My Brother Jack 325 You knowing all the brass-hats and the skulls down at the Barracks... I don't suppose you could pull some strings for me? 1978 R. Beilby Gunner 135 The little man nodded towards Whiteside and the captain... ‘Them skulls with you?’ |
▪ II. skull, scull, n.2 Sc. and
† north. (
skʌl)
Forms: α. 6
skill,
skyll. β. 6–
skull. γ. 8–
scull.
[Of obscure origin.] A strong, shallow basket (now sometimes made of iron wire) of a circular or oval form and considerable size, used
esp. for farm produce, fish, and fishing-lines.
| α 1508 Dunbar Flyting 231 Fische wyvis cryis, Fy! and castis doun skillis and skeilis. 1516–7 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 106 Pro le Skyll' pro bobus pascent ij d. |
| β 1513 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 496 Item, for skullis, vj d. 1634–46 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 288 To the Judas, whose skill..was knowen to be far greater in making of skulls nor either in praying or preaching. 1724 Dunbar's Flyting xxiii. in Ramsay Evergreen, Fish Wyves..cast down Skulls and skeils. 1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 395 She seized her empty skull, and beat it unmercifully about..poor John. 1840–1 Q. Jrnl. Agric. XI. 112 The large ozier or willow basket..in some parts of the country known by the name of ‘skulls’. 1882 Jamieson's Sc. Dict. s.v., The fisherman's skull is..deep at one end for the line, and shallow at the other for the baited hooks. |
| γ 1752 Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Cl.) I. 465 All riddles, sculls, creels, mauns, beescaps. 1794 Statist. Acc. Scotl. XIII. 401 She recollected that she was..rocked in a fisher's scull instead of a cradle. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxvi, She maun get the scull on her back, and awa wi' the fish to the next burrows-town. 1851 H. Stephens Bk. Farm (ed. 2) I. 261 The most common practice of carrying the turnips is by the stalls in baskets, called sculls. |
Hence
ˈskullful,
ˈscullful, the fill of a skull.
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 122 Each skulful [ed. 2 scullful] will contain rather more than 32 lb. [of turnips]. |
▪ III. † skull, n.3 Obs. rare.
Also
scull.
[Of obscure origin.] A drinking-bowl or -vessel.
| 1513 Douglas æneid iii. i. 125 We keist of warme mylk mony a scull [L. cymbium]. Ibid. vii. iii. 89 In flacon and in skull [L. cratera] Thai skynk the wyne. |
▪ IV. skull, v. (
skʌl)
[f. skull n.1] 1. trans. (with
up) and
intr. Metallurgy. Of molten metal: to freeze and form a skull (in).
Cf. skull n.1 4.
| 1941 Engineers' Digest II. 409/2 Very low sulphur iron, or slow-running iron, would skull up the ladles if much scrap were used. 1953 D. J. O. Brandt Manuf. Iron & Steel xxiii. 174 Neither may the ladle be emptied too slowly, for if it is the steel will get too cold and will ‘scull’ [ed. 2: skull], i.e., freeze. |
2. trans. To strike (someone) on the head.
slang (chiefly
U.S.).
| 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 157 Skull, to strike (someone). 1952 B. Malamud Natural 32 My father? Well, maybe I did want to skull him sometimes. 1956 F. Castle Violent Hours vii. 58 ‘You didn't get skulled backing away from him,’ Webb said dryly. 1975 A. Bergman Hollywood & Le Vine (1976) viii. 97 My waking came in drugged stages... I had been skulled. |
▪ V. skull variant or
obs. form of
scull n. and v.