Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Skillygalee.
- adj. Skilled, skilful.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as skilligalee.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a thin porridge or soup (usually oatmeal and water flavored with meat)
Etymologies
Examples
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` Three parts 'means three-quarters of a pint, and ` skilly' is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.
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"skilly" is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.
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"If you couldn't get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice 'ot bowl of soup called skilly, and bread better'n any one knows' ow to make now, reg'lar WHITE bread, gov'ment bread."
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Breakfast at 6: 00 A.M. might be bread and a gruel called "skilly" made with oatmeal or moldy meat.
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"Three parts" means three-quarters of a pint, and "skilly" is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.
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It consisted of gruel, or, in prison parlance, "skilly," and another little brown loaf.
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The reader will understand the position better if I remind him that the only material preparation I had in the morning for the task of defending myself against Sir Hardinge Giffard and Mr. Maloney was six ounces of dry bread and a little thin cocoa, which the doctor had ordered instead of the "skilly" to stop my diarrhoea.
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To remove this evil influence, I was subjected to the following operation, which was prescribed and superintended by a neighbour "skilly" in such matters: -- A sixpence was borrowed from a neighbour, a good fire was kept burning in the grate, the door was locked, and I was placed upon a chair in front of the fire.
Folk Lore Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century
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“If you couldn’t get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice ‘ot bowl of soup called skilly, and bread better’n any one knows ‘ow to make now, reg’lar WHITE bread, gov’ment bread.”
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'skilly' includes all the indelicacies of the season, with champagne,
knitandpurl commented on the word skilly
"'Because you're a stiff-necked, rascally, rebellious, unruly rout of predestined skilly-swillers,' he would yell."
The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, p 185 of the New York Review of Books hardcover
July 17, 2013
yarb commented on the word skilly
"Sc. and north. dial.
Also skeely, skeily.
Skilled, skilful; having considerable skill in some respect."
- OED2
September 4, 2009