skean
Americannoun
noun
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
During their combat, however, some of Macpherson’s gillies approached the spot; and Cameron perceived them nearing him with kindling eyes, and holding in their impatient hands the skean dhu half unsheathed.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI by Leighton, Alexander
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
It is my grandfather's skean dhu," he said: "I mend my pens with it, you know!
From Donal Grant, by George MacDonald by MacDonald, George
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.
