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skelly.

A squint.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskɛli/

  1. A squint.

    Scotland · archaic
Where this word comes from

Probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *skjelga ("to squint"; found only in the reflexive skjelgask (“to come askew; squint the eyes”)), from Proto-Germanic *skilgijaną (“to squint”), from Proto-Germanic *skelhaz, *skelhwaz, *skelgaz (“slanted; sloping; squinting”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to bend; crook”). Compare Danish skele (“to squint”), Swedish skela (“to squint”), Scots skellie, scalie, skellice (“to squint; look to the side”), German schielen (“to squint”).

verb/ˈskɛli/

  1. To squint.

    Scotland

  2. To look at

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

Probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *skjelga ("to squint"; found only in the reflexive skjelgask (“to come askew; squint the eyes”)), from Proto-Germanic *skilgijaną (“to squint”), from Proto-Germanic *skelhaz, *skelhwaz, *skelgaz (“slanted; sloping; squinting”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to bend; crook”). Compare Danish skele (“to squint”), Swedish skela (“to squint”), Scots skellie, scalie, skellice (“to squint; look to the side”), German schielen (“to squint”).

noun/ˈskɛli/

  1. A skeleton, especially a human one.

    slang
    We went spelunking in some caves and got quite the scare when we found some skellies in there.
Where this word comes from

From a clipping of skeleton + -y (diminutive suffix).

noun/ˈskɛli/

  1. Alternative form of skully (“street game of flicking caps”).

    alt-of · alternative · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Variant of skully.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.