skull

plural skulls · alternative scull

1. anatomyThe main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.

   He was about to roar when, lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff, he saw a whole skull—perhaps a cow's skull, a skull, perhaps, with the teeth in it. Sobbing, but absent-mindedly, he ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms.

   1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC

   1 more example

   All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 110

2. These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.

   Thine are these orbs of light and shade; ⁠Thou madest Life in man and brute; ⁠Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Prologue”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

3. figurativelyThe mind or brain.

   My thoughts are flying around in my skull like fireflies in a jar, but all of a sudden I'm unbearably tired and can't stay awake.

   2006, Bart Yates, The Brothers Bishop

4. A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.
5. The crown of the headpiece in armour.
6. ScotlandA shallow bow-handled basket.
7. UKobsoleteslangThe head or master of a college.

   Graduates […] will never forget that majestic stature, that massive brow, that commanding look, as its possessor paced the ante-chapel of his college, or took his seat of presidence among the skulls of Golgotha.

   1881, The Academy, page 407

present singular third person skulls · participle present skulling · participle past skulled · past skulled · alternative scull

1. To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.
2. transitivegolfTo strike the top of (the ball).

   Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.

   2002, Robert C. Knox, Golf Balls Are Female, page 148

3. To drink everything that remains in a glass by upending it.

   She nearly skulled the next drink and, despite feeling a little woozy, she felt a lot better.

   2016, Karen Nolan, The Y Necklace

   3 more examples

   That was at Jessica Eyre's sixteenth, and while nothing terrible had happened (I had skulled four Lemon Ruskis and fallen asleep in the garden), it was agreed by all that I had embarrassed myself.

   2021, Mary Fifield, Kristin Thiel, Fire & Water

   He lifted his pint to skull what was left, but suddenly the whole thing— the smell of smoke and spilled beer, the flat Glasgow voices, the chiming of the cash register, the clatter of glasses— was somehow too much.

   2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 337

   He skulled his drink, set the glass down, then grabbed the bottle and ambled over to the other couch.

   2022, Lena Moore ·, Coveted

plural skulls

1. obsoleteObsolete form of school (“a multitude”).

   A knavish skull of boys and girls did pelt at him.

   1586, William Warner, Albion’s England

   1 more example

   These fishs, togither with the old Tunies and the young, called Pelamides, enter in great flotes and skulls, into the sea Pontus, for the sweet food that they there find: and every companie of them hath their fever all leaders and captaines; and before them all, the Maquerels lead the way; which, while they be in the water, have a colour of brimstone; but without, like they be to the rest.

   1601, Philemon Holland (translator), Pliny the Elder (author), The Historie of the World. Commonly called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndvs., book IX, chapter xv: “Of the names and natures of many fishes.”

   Synonyms: brainpan, harnpan