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Synonyms

skean

American  
[skeen, skee-uhn] / skin, ˈski ən /
Also skene

noun

  1. a knife or dagger formerly used in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands.

skean British  
/ skiːn /

noun

  1. a kind of double-edged dagger formerly used in Ireland and Scotland

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of skean

1520–30; < Scots Gaelic sgian or Irish scian

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He described the defeat as "the night of long skean dhus".

From BBC • Jun. 2, 2015

Last week at 98 he was the oldest Highland chieftain, with tasseled sporran and a jeweled skean dhus dirk in his stocking.

From Time Magazine Archive

Their fronts are hidden by hangings of tartan cloth; the windows are decked with sporrans, dirks, cairngorm plaid-brooches, ram's-head snuff-boxes, bullocks' horns and skean dhus.

From Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places by Forbes, Archibald

I moved backward, hand on my skean, braced for a sudden rush.

From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer

It was very quiet, until Rakhal added, in a gentle and curiously moderate voice, "Do you still carry a skean, Race?"

From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.