skell

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English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1

  • Perhaps from skeleton, describing the often skeletal appearance of drug users.
  • Alternatively, from skellum or skelder ("to beg in the streets"). Used by Ben Jonson, 1599.
  • In the sense of a suspicious person, popularized by the American TV police drama NYPD Blue.

Alternative forms

Noun

skell (plural skells)

  1. (slang, US, New York) a homeless person, especially one who sleeps in the New York subway.
    Did you see those two skells lying in the doorway?
  2. (slang, US, New York, police jargon) A male suspicious person or crime suspect, especially a street person such as a drug dealer, pimp or panhandler.
Synonyms

References

  • The City in Slang, New York Life and Popular Speech, by Irving Lewis Allen, 1993.
  • Dictionary of American Regional English, by Joan Houston Hall, 2002

Etymology 2

Verb

skell (third-person singular simple present skells, present participle skelling, simple past and past participle skelled)

  1. (slang, intransitive) To fall off or fall over.
    She went skelling over on the ice.

Anagrams

Icelandic

Verb

skell (strong)

  1. first-person singular present indicative of skella
  2. second-person singular imperative of skella

Verb

skell (weak)

  1. second-person singular imperative of skella
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