skellum
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of skellum
1605–15; < Dutch schelm rogue, knave < Middle Low German; cognate with German Schelm rogue, Old High German skelmo, scalmo plague, corpse
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.
Brown is of a generation with my parents, and grew up calling a chimney a lum, an ear a lug, a frog a puddock, and the likes of David Cameron, a sleekit skellum.
From The Guardian • Jun. 4, 2010
Dere he was, an’ dere’s de leopard comin’ for her cubses; but darie ou’ skellum he ain’t done yet.
From Old Hendrik's Tales by Vaughan, Arthur Owen
It ain’t no sort o’ trouble to him to plan skellum; it yust come nat’ral to him.
From Old Hendrik's Tales by Vaughan, Arthur Owen
Now ev'ry sour-mou'd girnin blellum, And Calvin's folk, are fit to fell him; Ilk self-conceited critic skellum His quill may draw; He wha could brawlie ward their bellum— Willie's awa!
From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Burns, Robert
His sons and daughters were many, and all good, save for one sidelong skellum, Piet, his second son, who afterwards went to live among the English.
From Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases Seventeen Short Stories by Gibbon, Perceval
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.
