skittle

plural skittles

1. One of the wooden targets used in skittles.

   By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.

   1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137

present singular third person skittles · participle present skittling · participle past skittled · past skittled

1. intransitiveTo play skittles.
2. transitive(with down) To squander one's money.
3. transitiveball games(sometimes with out) To rapidly bowl out a succession of batsmen.
   1. figurativelytransitiveball gamesTo defeat easily.
4. transitiveTo knock down (skittles).