skookum
Americanadjective
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large; powerful; impressive.
-
excellent; first-rate.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of skookum
1825–35, < Chinook Jargon: strong, powerful < Lower Chehalis (Salishan language of the Washington coast) skwəkwə́m ghost, spirit, monster (hence, apparently “fearsome” > “powerful” in Chinook Jargon)
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.
Northwest look as handsome and healthy as skookum apples.
From Time Magazine Archive
He's the hi-yu, skookum top-chief of the whole caboodle.
From Smoke Bellew by London, Jack
Hias Peter did not return that evening, and the next day Johnny was at the works with greater cannonading, and with more skookum tumtum than ever, and this time he was braver.
From Skookum Chuck Fables Bits of History, Through the Microscope by Cumming, R. D. (Robert Dalziel)
I have a skookum young second mate in the Florence Ricks that I'm training for a captain, and I want to switch him in on the Humboldt Bay run for the sake of the experience.
From Cappy Ricks Or, the Subjugation of Matt Peasley by Kyne, Peter B. (Peter Bernard)
Then they have a skookum big fight, and Pisk-ku go 'way with John Borg.
From A Daughter of the Snows by London, Jack
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.
