skull and crossbones

plural skulls and crossbones · alternative skull-and-crossbones

1. A depiction of a human skull and two crossed femurs (thighbones), a symbol of death traditionally used on the Jolly Roger pirate flag, but now used on chemical containers and other hazardous items as an indicator of warning of toxicity or other life-threatening dangers or risks.

   And this was open rebellion. This was hoisting the skull and cross-bones.

   1924 May 24 – July 12, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Sunday Night at Mario’s”, in Bill the Conqueror: His Invasion of England in the Springtime, 10th edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1931, →OCLC, § 1, page 254

   5 more examples

   In an obscure corner of the town stands a house of extreme antiquity, over the door of which are still to be seen a skull and crossbones.

   1832 February, “A Tale of Galway, Ireland”, in Louis Antoine Godey, editor, The Lady’s Book: A Monthly Magazine of Belles-lettres and the Arts. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: L[ouis] A[ntoine] Godey & Co. […], →OCLC, page 95, column 1

   She stood within the chamber, and gazed around her; no signs by which an Inquisitor of old could have detected the Scholar of the Black Arts were visible. No crucibles and caldrons, no brass-bound volumes and ciphered girdles, no skulls and crossbones.

   1842, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VII, in Zanoni. […], volume III, London: Saunders & Otley, […], →OCLC, 6th book (Superstition Deserting Faith), page 87

   Escorted to the sign of the Skull-and-Cross-Bones, we received the very best entertainment which that royal inn could afford.

   1849, Herman Melville, “They Visit the Lords Piko and Hello”, in Mardi: And a Voyage Thither. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 144

   Mark those bottles, my dear sirs, as housewives do corrosive sublimate or ratsbane,—with a skull and crossbones, and label them "Poison," for the effect of them upon the luckless wight who should taste their contents, would be convulsive, very.

   1850 June, “Letter to the Editors”, in E. W. Evans et al., editors, The Yale Literary Magazine: […], volume XV, number VII, New Haven, Conn.: T. J. Stafford [for] A. H. Maltby, →OCLC, page 273

   His own taste combined the gloomy and the grotesque, his clothes and his [book] bindings alike being covered with skulls and crossbones, and spangles to represent tears, with other conventional emblems of sorrow.

   1893, Charles Isaac Elton, Mary Augusta Elton, “France: Early Bookmen—Royal Collectors”, in The Great Book-Collectors, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., page 107