skull

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.

   All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.

2. 2
   noun

   These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.

   Thine are these orbs of light and shade; ⁠Thou madest Life in man and brute; ⁠Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made.

3. 3
   noun

   The mind or brain.

   My thoughts are flying around in my skull like fireflies in a jar, but all of a sudden I'm unbearably tired and can't stay awake.

4. 4
   noun

   The head or master of a college.

   Graduates […] will never forget that majestic stature, that massive brow, that commanding look, as its possessor paced the ante-chapel of his college, or took his seat of presidence among the skulls of Golgotha.

5. 5
   verb

   To strike the top of (the ball).

   Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.

6. 6
   verb

   To drink everything that remains in a glass by upending it.

   She nearly skulled the next drink and, despite feeling a little woozy, she felt a lot better.

7. 7
   noun

   Obsolete form of school (“a multitude”).

   A knavish skull of boys and girls did pelt at him.

8. 8
   noun

   the bony skeleton of the head of vertebrates

Etymology

From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare Finnish skallo. Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle. Related to Old Norse skoltr (“brow”), skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Norwegia…