skerry
Americannoun
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a small, rocky island.
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a coastline with a series of such islands offshore.
noun
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a small rocky island
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a reef
Etymology
Origin of skerry
1605–15; Shetland dial. skerri a rock in the sea < Old Norse sker (genitive plural skerja ) rock or reef (in the sea). See scar 2
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.
For years I coloured your world in hues you didn't recognise; never your island, always your skerry – "unable to see the romance of the thing for the thing itself".
From The Guardian • Apr. 9, 2010
Now they saw it, and said that it must be a skerry.
From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
Now they saw it, and said, that it must be a skerry; but he was so much keener of sight than they, that he was able to discern men upon the skerry.
From The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 by Olson, Julius E.
His boat, being smaller and lighter than the Laulie, could venture much nearer a skerry or holme.
From Viking Boys by Saxby, Jessie Margaret Edmondston
"He was ahint the skerry when we were in the geo, and heard a'."
From Viking Boys by Saxby, Jessie Margaret Edmondston
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.
