skelf

/ (skɛlf) /


nounScot and Northern English dialect
  1. a splinter of wood, esp when embedded accidentally in the skin

  2. a thin or diminutive person

Origin of skelf

1
from Scottish; see shelf

Words Nearby skelf

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

How to use skelf in a sentence

  • They're her beuks maistly upo' the skelf there abune yer ain, Mr. Sutherlan'.

    David Elginbrod | George MacDonald
  • Yell be a arable man; alls carrs hereabouts; but I dont doubt ye know all about skelf-Mary.

    Back o' the Moon | Oliver Onions
  • I supped and lay that night in his hut; and by eight oclock next morning he had conducted me to the village of skelf-Mary.

    Back o' the Moon | Oliver Onions
  • It wasna an ill w'y to beery fowk, nor an ill place to gang til, for they aye biggit up the skelf, ye ken.

    Heather and Snow | George MacDonald