skelly

See also: Skelly

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɛli/

Etymology 1

Probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *skjelga ("to squint"; found only in the reflexive skjelgask (“to come askew; squint the eyes”)), from Proto-Germanic *skilgijaną (“to squint”), from Proto-Germanic *skelhaz, *skelhwaz, *skelgaz (“slanted; sloping; squinting”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to bend; crook”). Compare Danish skele (“to squint”), Swedish skela (“to squint”), Scots skellie, scalie, skellice (“to squint; look to the side”), German schielen (“to squint”).

Noun

skelly (plural skellies)

1. (Scotland, archaic) A squint.

Verb

skelly (third-person singular simple present skellies, present participle skellying, simple past and past participle skellied)

1. (Scotland) To squint.
   • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 87:

     "It is he—it is the very man," said Bothwell, "skellies fearfully with one eye?"

2. (Scotland) To look at

Etymology 2

From a clipping of skeleton +‎ -y (diminutive suffix).

Noun

skelly (plural skellies)

1. (slang) A skeleton, especially a human one.

   We went spelunking in some caves and got quite the scare when we found some skellies in there.

Etymology 3

Variant of skully.

Noun

skelly (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of skully (“street game of flicking caps”)