skean
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of skean
1520–30; < Scots Gaelic sgian or Irish scian
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.
He described the defeat as "the night of long skean dhus".
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2015
Last week at 98 he was the oldest Highland chieftain, with tasseled sporran and a jeweled skean dhus dirk in his stocking.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I had my skean handy, but I had a hunch this wasn't anything I could settle with a skean.
From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer
One guard pushed my skean back into its clasp.
From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer
A Sassenach chief may be bonily built, He may purchase a sporran, a bonnet, and kilt; Stick a skean in his hose—wear an acre of stripes— But he cannot assume an affection for pipes.
From The Best Nonsense Verses by Bacon, Josephine Dodge Daskam
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.