skull

He was about to roar when, lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff, he saw a whole skull—perhaps a cow's skull, a skull, perhaps, with the teeth in it. Sobbing, but absent-mindedly, he ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms.

1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

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

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.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Prologue:

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

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.

A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.

(Scotland) A shallow bow-handled basket.

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”). Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.
Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skoltr, skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Middle Dutch scolle, scholle, Middle Low German scholle, schulle (“clod, sod”), and Scots skult, skolt. Compare also Old High German sciula, skiula (“skull”).


skull

To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.

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

2002, Robert C. Knox, Golf Balls Are Female, page 148:

(transitive, golf) To strike the top of (the ball).

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

That was at Jessica Eyre's sixteenth, and while nothing terrible had happened (I had skulled four Lemon Ruskis and fallen asleep in the garden), it was agreed by all that I had embarrassed myself.

2021, Mary Fifield, Kristin Thiel, Fire & Water:

He lifted his pint to skull what was left, but suddenly the whole thing— the smell of smoke and spilled beer, the flat Glasgow voices, the chiming of the cash register, the clatter of glasses— was somehow too much.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 337:

He skulled his drink, set the glass down, then grabbed the bottle and ambled over to the other couch.

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

en-verb

skull (third-person singular simple present skulls, present participle skulling, simple past and past participle skulled)

skulls (present singular third-person)
skulling (participle present)
skulled (participle past)
skulled (past)
scull (alternative)


skull

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

These fishs, togither with the old Tunies and the young, called Pelamides, enter in great flotes and skulls, into the sea Pontus, for the sweet food that they there find: and every companie of them hath their fever all leaders and captaines; and before them all, the Maquerels lead the way; which, while they be in the water, have a colour of brimstone; but without, like they be to the rest.

1601, Philemon Holland (translator), Pliny the Elder (author), The Historie of the World. Commonly called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndvs., book IX, chapter xv: “Of the names and natures of many fishes.”

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

Obsolete form of school (“a multitude”).