skelly

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɛli/

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”).

skelly (plural skellies)

1. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A squint.

skelly (third-person singular simple present skellies, present participle skellying, simple past and past participle skellied)

1. (Britain, Scotland, dialectal) To squint.
   • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 87:

     "It is he—it is the very man," said Bothwell, "skellies fearfully with one eye?"

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

skelly (plural skellies)

1. (slang) A skeleton, especially a human one.

   We went spelunking in some caves and got quite the scare when we found some skellies in there.

Variant of skully.

skelly (uncountable)

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