skimmerton

American  

[skim-er-tuhn] / ˈskɪm ər tən /

Also skimmelton

noun

Chiefly Hudson Valley.

1. shivaree.

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Etymology

Origin of skimmerton

Compare, in Britain, skimmington, skim(m)iting a similar rural custom intended to ridicule an unfaithful or abusive husband or wife, originally, an effigy of the offending person; of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

No sooner have you penetrated his retreat, which is usually a thick undergrowth in low, wet localities, near the woods or in old fields, than he begins his serenade, which for the variety, grotesqueness, and uncouthness of the notes, is not unlike a country skimmerton.

From Project Gutenberg

The Dunmow Flitch is a well-known matrimonial prize for happy couples who have never quarrelled during the first year of their wedded life; while a Skimmerton expresses popular indignation against quarrelsome or licentious husbands and wives.

From Project Gutenberg

Hester, a mâ-be, war zummet ta blame too: vor she war one o'm, d'ye zee, that rawd Skimmerton—thic mâ game that frunted zum o' tha gennel-vawk.

From Project Gutenberg

There was but one single porch, in fact, facing its stately trees whereon no flocks of birds, old or young, ever alighted, and that belonged to Peter Skimmerton—the meanest man in town—who in a fit of parsimony over candles, so the girls said, had bared his porch of every protesting vine and had placed opposite his door-step a glaring street gas-lamp—-a monstrous and never-to- be-forgotten affront.

From Project Gutenberg