▪ I. skit, n.1 Now dial.
Also 4 skitte, skyt, 5 skytt(e.
[Of Scand. origin: cf. Norw. skit dirt, filth, Norw. and Icel. skita diarrhœa. The corresponding native form is shit n.]
1. fig. Dirt, trash. rare—1.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 16714 But for to schewe his mykel wyt, On my spekynge þat ys but skyt [v.r. skitte]. |
2. Diarrhœa in animals, esp. sheep; scouring.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 458/1 Skytte, or flyx,..fluxus,..dissenteria. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 491 To cure the Skit or Looseness in Sheep. 1799 A. Young Agric. Lincoln. 376 They die of the skit, or scouring. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 986 A sort of indigestion..which, when it proceeds to any great length, is termed the skit. 1865 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. I. ii. 289 Something more than common ‘skit’, or diarrhœa. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as skit-brains, skit-brained, in opprobrious use.
| 1553 Respublica 1812 Stande styll, skitbraind theaff, or thy bonds shall be coilled. Ibid. 1818 The skitbraines nold not bee roilled ner sens ye wente. |
▪ II. skit, n.2
[Related to skit v.2, but the earlier history is not clear.]
1. a. A female of a vain, frivolous, or wanton disposition. Chiefly Sc.
| 1572 Buchanan's Detect. Mary Q. Scots M ij, That haynous offence,..that at the banquet of her domesticall parasite, sche had nat played the dauncing skit. 1583 Earl of Northampton Defensatiue S ij, At the request of a dauncing skitte [Herod] stroke of the head of Saint Iohn the Baptist. 1808 Jamieson s.v., Skit is still used for a vain, empty creature; sometimes, proud skit. |
b. Sc. ‘A young capering or restive horse.’
| 1882 Jamieson's Sc. Dict. IV. 254/2. |
2. A quizzing or satirical reflection upon, or hit at, a person or thing; a remark of this nature.
| 1727 Bailey (vol. II), Skit, a Caprice, Whimsey. 1779 H. Cowley Who's the Dupe? ii. ii, Come, come, none of your tricks upon travellers. I know you mean all that as a skit upon my edication. 1820–2 W. H. Pyne Wine & Walnuts (1824) II. xi. 174 No more of your skits at my right noble country. 1861 Times 22 Mar. 8/6 Mr. Cobden could afford to reply to the compliments of a Mayor without a skit at the press. 1878 E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 421 He did not deserve your skit about his ‘Finsbury Circus gentility’. |
b. A literary or artistic production intended as a piece of light satire, parody, or caricature.
| 1820 Combe Syntax, Consol. vii. (Chandos) 243 A Manuscript with learning fraught, Or some nice, pretty little skit Upon the times. 1884 Athenæum 19 Jan. 91/1 The German skit on the Shapira forgeries..is about to be translated in English verse. 1884 Sharman Hist. Swearing iv. 60 The British bull-dog has figured again and again in pictorial skits. |
c. A trick; a hoax; a practical joke; = skite n. 2. Chiefly dial.
| 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxii, If he really shot young Hazlewood—But I canna think it, Mr. Glossin; this will be some o' your skits now. 1865– in dialect glossaries. |
3. A slight shower (of rain or snow).
| 1847 in Halliw. 1865 Mrs. Carlyle New Lett. (1903) II. 336 It is blowing hard to-day, with a dull grey sky, and skits of rain. 1880 Blackmore Mary Anerley III. ii. 18 Soon the first snow of the winter came, the first abiding earnest snow, for several skits had come before. |
| transf. 1877 Blackie Wise Men 334 Plagues, frosts and mildews, and the lashing hail,..Are all but skits of crudely mingled air. |
b. A squirt or small jet of water.
| 1877 Blackie Nat. Hist. Atheism ii. 31 No more..than a skit of a boy's squirt can put out the sun. |
4. A slight stroke.
| 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 351 In the city, where money follows the skit of a pen,..it comes to be looked on as light. |
▪ III. skit, n.3
(See quot.)
| 1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iv. 277/1 The rods, or willows, as they are termed in the trade, comprise several varieties, as the skit willow, the gold-stone. |
▪ IV. skit, n.4 colloq.
(skɪt)
[Origin obscure.]
A large number, a crowd; pl. ‘lots’.
| 1913 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. ix. 287, I met an odd sort of chap..who told me a skit of things—you know—about a bad life. 1925 A. S. M. Hutchinson One Increasing Purpose iii. ix. 268 ‘What was that little red rosette he had on his left arm? I see skits of people with it.’ ‘Been vaccinated, of course.’ 1927 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 594/1 The Kachins were in the jungle, a skit of them, trying to stop us at the ford. |
▪ V. skit
obs. var. skate n.2
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 484 What to term them I know not, (except Dutch skits, to Slide withal). |
▪ VI. † skit, a.1 Obs.—1
In 6 skyt.
[? Back-formation from skittish a.]
Precipitate, over-hasty.
| a 1529 Skelton Agst. Scottes 101 Syr Skyrgalyard, ye were so skyt, Your wyll than ran before your wyt. |
▪ VII. skit, a.2 Anglo-Ir.
(skɪt)
[App. colloq. adjectival use of Ir. sciót cut, bit, laugh.]
Amusing; to be right skit, to be a great laugh (cf. laugh n. 4 b).
| 1914 Joyce Dubliners 26 Mahoney said it would be right skit to run away to sea on one of those big ships. |
▪ VIII. skit, v.1 rare—1.
[Related to skit n.1]
intr. To void thin excrement; = skitter v.1
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 985 If the milk be given over cold, it is apt to cause the calf to skit or purge. |
▪ IX. skit, v.2
(skɪt)
[Of doubtful origin: perh. only a back-formation from skittish a. It might, however, represent an ON. *skytja (cf. flytja flit), f. *skut-, the weak grade of skjóta to shoot. In sense 2 perh. from skit n.2 2.]
1. intr. To shy or be skittish; to move lightly and rapidly; to caper, leap, or spring.
| 1611 Chapman May Day ii. ii, I hope my friend will not loue a wench against her will;..if shee skit and recoile,..away he goes. 1621 Molle Camerarius' Liv. Lib. iv. xiii. 278 The daughters of Prætus..persuaded themselues that they were changed into cowes, and thereupon began to low, and skit vp and downe the fields. 1807–10 Tannahill Poems (1846) 11 She skits and flings like ony towmont filly. 1860 Piesse Lab. Chem. Wonders 3 Innumerable insects may be seen at sunset skitting and dancing in the air. 1894 Blackmore Perlycross viii. 64 The man..skitted back into a bush, very nimble and clever. |
2. a. trans. To cast indirect reflections or light satire upon (a person, etc.); to ridicule or caricature by means of a skit.
| 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves (ed. 2) Gloss., Skit, to reflect on. [Similarly in later northern dial. glossaries.] 1892 Star 24 Mar. 2/4 These meetings were skitted by Elkanah Settle in ‘The New Athenian Comedy’. 1904 Daily Chron. 20 Feb. 3/4 The first occasion on which Mr. Roberts has ‘skitted’ Mr. Beerbohm Tree. |
b. intr. To make satirical hits at a person or thing.
| 1821 Londsdale Mag. II. 247 Then nobody dare skit at me for being a tailyer. c 1840 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 84 Warburton..had too much learning to skit at Bentley as Pope has done. 1885 Mozley Rem. I. 130 When people have condoled with me..or have skitted at commercial gentility. |