skill

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   ability to produce solutions in some problem domain

   the skill of a well-trained boxer

2. 2
   noun

   A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.

   Where did you pick up that skill?

3. 3
   noun

   Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause.

   Him so I sought, and so at last I fownd Where him that witch had thralled to her will, In chaines of lust and lewde desyres ybownd And so transformed from his former skill, That me he knew not, nether his owne ill;

4. 4
   noun

   Knowledge; understanding.

   And Howell Dha shall goodly well indew The salvage minds with skill of just and trew;

5. 5
   noun

   Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.

   Richard was well ſtored with men, the bones; and quickly got money, the ſinews of warre; by a thousand Princely ſkills gathering ſo much coin as if he meant not to return, becauſe looking back would unbowe his reſolution.

6. 6
   adj

   Great, excellent.

   Well, unfortunately for you, my dearest Waggipoos, I'm much more skill than you!

7. 7
   verb

   To discern; have knowledge or understanding; to know how (to).

   I cannot skill of these Thy ways […]

8. 8
   verb

   To know; to understand.

   As for the virginals I have none here that skill of them, except the young lord.

Etymology

From Middle English skilen (also schillen), partly from Old English scilian (“to separate, part, divide off”); and partly from Old Norse skilja (“to divide, separate”); both from Proto-Germanic *skilōną, *skiljaną (“to divide, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skille (“to separate, discard”), Swedish skilja (“to distinguish, differentiate, part”), Icelandic skilja (“to understand”), Low German schelen (“to make a difference; to be squint-eyed”), Dutch schelen (“to make a difference”).