Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Used as a drinking toast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An exclamation of good wishes; hail!

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection A toast, roughly equivalent to cheers.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Danish and Norwegian skaal, cup, skoal, from Old Norse skāl, bowl, drinking vessel; see skel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Nordic skål, which is used for raising a toast and also means bowl. (That there is a relation to English "skull" is urban legend.)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word skoal.

Examples

  • I was going to say "skoal" as my paternal grandparents are Danish and that IS my usual toast.

    Think Progress 2009

  • I was going to say "skoal" as my paternal grandparents are Danish and that IS my usual toast.

    Think Progress 2009

  • I was going to say "skoal" as my paternal grandparents are Danish and that IS my usual toast.

    Think Progress 2009

  • I was going to say "skoal" as my paternal grandparents are Danish and that IS my usual toast.

    Think Progress 2009

  • "skoal" to them in turn, and so Gerda the Queen had come home.

    A Sea Queen's Sailing 1884

  • Weymouth, and thereafter drank 'skoal' to me when we chased the trading ship. "

    A King's Comrade A Story of Old Hereford 1884

  • Maybe what was said tonight will discourage some of our fellow citizens who seem determined to buy desert land and hoard gold, bullets, and skoal in their pickup trucks.

    Remarks At Fifth Millennium Evening At The White House ITY National Archives 1999

  • [1] Skal or skoal was the Norwegian word used in drinking a health.

    Days of the Discoverers L. Lamprey 1910

  • This, I suspect, is to be about her first real tussle; skoal to the victor!

    The Tinder-Box Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

  • He gate shut a mooar stuff nor ivver he'd getten shut on afooar in a wick, but his purse wor varry little heavier at neet nor it wor i'th 'morning, for as t'mooast ov his customers wor connected wi th' Sunday skoal, an 'they all wanted sarvin' that day, he discovered at Testy worn't likely to prove all profit after all.

    Yorksher Puddin' A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the Pen of John Hartley John Hartley 1877

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.