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
I edged backward, my own hand racing up for a skean I hadn't carried in six years, and fronted them squarely, hoping I could face down the prospect of a roughhouse.
From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Irish, a vagabond; shillelagh, Irish, a cudgel; skain, skean, Sc.,
From English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
"Tyr-owen!" yelled Brian, and dropping his sword, but holding his skean firmly, he hurdled the stern-walk railing and leaped.
From Nuala O'Malley by Bedford-Jones, H.
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.
