skimble-skamble, rambling, incoherent. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 154. See [scamble].
skimmington, a ceremony practised on unpopular persons in various parts of England; fully described in EDD. See Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv. 230; Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits, iv (ed. R. Bell, p. 125). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq., Cornutes (ed. 1877, p. 414), for an account of ‘Riding Skimmington’, where it is described as a ludicrous cavalcade intended to ridicule a man beaten by his wife.
skink, to draw or pour out liquor. B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Lovel); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 133. Hence, Under-skinker, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 26. ME. skinke, to pour out (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1722). For full account of this verb see Dict. (s.v. Nunchion).
skipjack, a pert fellow, a whipper-snapper. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1 (Alph.); also, a horse-dealer’s boy, Dekker, Lanthorne, x; see Nares. ‘Skipjack’ is in prov. use in north of England in sense of a pert, conceited fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Skip, vb.1 1 (2 a)).
skipper, a barn (Cant). ‘A skypper, a barne’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). Possibly Cornish sciber, Welsh ysgubor, a barn (NED.), Med. L. scopar, ‘scuria, stabulum’ (Ducange).
skirr, to pass rapidly over a stretch of land; ‘Skirre the country round’, Macbeth, v. 3. 35. Of doubtful origin (NED.). In prov. use in the sense of to scurry, rush, fly quickly (EDD.).
skit, skittish, restive. Spelt skyt, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101. See EDD. (s.v. Skit, vb.2 1).
skoase, to chaffer, barter, exchange. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st. 64. See [scorse].
skope, skoope, pt. t. of scape, scaped, escaped, got away. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 458 (L. evado); skoope = escaped to, id., vi. 425; skoope, escaped, id., ix. 545 (L. elapsi).
skoser; see [scorse].