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 buckled the final clasp of my shirtcloak, fitted my skean another notch into it, and counted the money Mack had advanced me for expenses.
From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer
From his belt depended some instruments, with the use of which Macpherson was entirely unacquainted; together with a skean dhu of exquisite and uncommon workmanship.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI by Leighton, Alexander
It seemed empty, except for a few sodden derelicts sprawled in doorways—the Street of the Six Shepherds is a filthy slum—but I made sure my skean was loose.
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.
