Meanings
nounscrimshanker (plural scrimshankers)
plural scrimshankers
- UKslanggovernmentA shirker; one who scrimshanks.
“As good a boy as I want,” said Revere, the admiring skipper. “The best of the batch,” said the Adjutant to the Colonel. “Keep back that young skrimshanker Porkiss, sir, and let Revere make him sit up.”
1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 142
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
scrimshanker. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scrimshanker
MLA
“scrimshanker.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scrimshanker. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scrimshanker,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scrimshanker.
Source: scrimshanker on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.