skelp

present singular third person skelps · participle present skelping · participle past skelped · past skelped

1. Northern EnglandScotlandtransitiveTo beat or slap with the hand.

   But Mistress Munro would up and be at the door and in she'd yank Andy by the lug, and some said she'd take down his breeks and skelp him, but maybe that was a lie.

   1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24

   1 more example

   My stomach was just sore and I was rubbing it. But he just reached and skelped me on the leg and I fell down and he waited for me to get up and he skelped me on the b*m.

   2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 67

2. Northern EnglandScotlandtransitiveTo beat, pound or hammer.

   ... sewing, hammering, and "skelping away at the leather."

   1877, Samuel Smiles, Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnean Society, page 183

   2 more examples

   ... hither blith comes tinker John, Who skelps the kettle, and sweet tunes the drone, […]

   1804, George Galloway, The Battle of Luncarty, Or the Valiant Hays Triumphant Over the Danish Invaders, page 15

   "Fa' in! fa' in!" he's yelpin : The fifes are whuslin' loud and clear, An ' sair the drums they're skelpin'.

   1819, Newcastle dialect, A collection of songs, comic and satirical, chiefly in the Newcastle dialect. By mess. Thompson, Shield and others, page 17

3. ScotlandTo drive by blows; to drive (hard), to cause to move rapidly.

   My fair opponents skelp me aff,[…]

   1861, Roger Quinn, The Heather Lintie: Being the Poetical Pieces, Spiritual and Temporal, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, page 112

   2 more examples

   We'll skelp him to hell, / where his frien's will him crown,[…]

   1876, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 126

   A byke was regarded as a glorious capture, not only for the sake of the honey, but because of the fun the boys had in skelpin' out the bees.

   1879, Samuel Smiles, Life of a Scotch Naturalist, Thomas Edward: Associate of the Linnean Society, page 17

4. IrelandNorthern EnglandScotlandintransitiveTo move briskly along; to run.

   ... that little plaguy breed / That skelp aboot in youngster's hair.

   1843, Thomas Wilson, The Pitman's Pay; and Other Poems, page 49

   4 more examples

   […] the lassie became extremely wild, ran like a hare, and […] skelped home in a crack, on the "light side of her foot," to Barniewater.

   1824, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia: or the Original Antiquated and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland, page 47

   ... up cam my young Lord Evandale, skelping as fast as his horse could trot, and twenty red-coats at his back.

   1855, Walter Scott, Waverly novels, library edition, page 7

   ... I saw Pat skelping along without a cap or a hat on his sun-burnt hair. 'What's the hurry, Pat?' says I. 'I'm going to see the execution,' says he.

   1875, Patrick Kennedy, The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle of the County of Wexford, page 105

   […] sha […] com skelpin yam, as thof summat had bont her, Or thoosans o' rattens an mice was behont her. Lawk! hoo sha did[…]

   1889, John Nicholson (School principal), The Folk Speech of East Yorkshire, page 46

5. intransitiveTo rain heavily; (of rain) to fall.

   ... more than halfway to the summit / A rain squall down on them did plummet, / Skelping down harder by the minute / We'll wait […]

   (Can we date this quote?), John McCuaig, The Sennachie, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 158

   1 more example

   "Lord Harry only knows what sort of storm is skelping down." They two knew what sort of storm it was, when they reached the long pasture that raked up into the Logie highroad. The wind came, and the snow, and biting hail - came ravening on the track of the wild-geese[…]

   2021 August 30, Henry James Halliwell Sutcliffe, Storm: A Tale of Nature's Wrath and Human Resilience, Good Press

plural skelps

1. A blow; a smart stroke, especially with the hand; a smack.

   They came crack down on their bottoms with a loud skelp on the seats.

   1833, Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log

   2 more examples

   [T]the farther they got an the bridge, the loudher he yelled; till at last Mick cud hould out no longer; so givin' him a skelp o' the whip he had in his han', "Divil choke you, you crukked brat," sez he; "will you nivir stop bawlin'? a body can't hear their ears for you."

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 526

   A skelp on the lug is not a very deadly assault. It is neither a stroke nor a blow.

   1899, J. B. Montgomerie Fleming, Desultory Notes on Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, page 144

2. ScotlandA squall; a heavy fall of rain.
3. ScotlandA large portion.

   Great skelps of riotous colors followed each other across the window-framed screen, pounding upon bleak northern hearts as the surf pounds upon a rocky headland.

   1921, The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, page 4

   1 more example

   ... great skelps of centuries together until they're almost in the same skin, growing into each other, shrinking to each other's sizes and shapes, speaking with one voice, clinging fast together, dying days or hours apart.

   2017 July 4, Donal Ryan, All We Shall Know: A Novel, Penguin, →ISBN, page 64

plural skelps

1. A narrow strip of rolled or forged metal, ready to be bent and welded to form a pipe.

   1 more example

   […] he then heats one half of the skelp at a time in an air furnace, or other fire, and having so heated it, he passes the skelp between a pair of grooved rollers placed at the mouth of the furnace, for the purpose of uniting (or marrying, as he terms it) the edges of the metal ; that is, causing the edges of the open part of the skelp to be pressed together, and made to adhere and form a complete cylinder.

   1836, William Newton, editor, The London Journal of Arts and Sciences; and Repertory of Patent Inventions, pages 407–8

present singular third person skelps · participle present skelping · participle past skelped · past skelped

1. transitiveTo form (a plate or bar of metal, etc.) into a skelp.
2. transitiveTo bend round (a skelp) in tube-making.