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skittle.

One of the wooden targets used in skittles.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskɪtəl/
  1. One of the wooden targets used in skittles.

Where this word comes from

Origin unknown. Perhaps of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse skutill (“bolt, harpoon”), related to skjóta (“to shoot”), but the OED dismisses this connection as conjecture. The Old Norse word is related to Swedish and Danish skyttel (“shuttle, child's toy”). Compare also Old English sċytel (“a dart, bolt”). More at shuttle.

verb/ˈskɪtəl/
  1. To play skittles.

    intransitive
  2. (with down) To squander one's money.

    transitive
  3. (sometimes with out) To rapidly bowl out a succession of batsmen.

    transitive
  4. (sometimes with out) To rapidly bowl out a succession of batsmen. To defeat easily.

    figuratively · transitive
  5. To knock down (skittles).

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin unknown. Perhaps of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse skutill (“bolt, harpoon”), related to skjóta (“to shoot”), but the OED dismisses this connection as conjecture. The Old Norse word is related to Swedish and Danish skyttel (“shuttle, child's toy”). Compare also Old English sċytel (“a dart, bolt”). More at shuttle.

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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.