skullcap 
garden, especially S. macrantha from eastern Asia, which 
produces abundant velvety dark-blue flowers. S. Mod- 
niana is a scarlet-flowered greenhouse species from 
Mexico. S. lateriliora of North America has had some 
apparently ill-grounded recognition as a nervine, and was 
once considered useful in hydrophobia (whence called 
madwecd, or mad-dog slntllcap). S. serrata, with large 
blue flowers, is one of the handsomest wild American 
species. 
She discovered flowers which her brother told her were 
horehound, skull-cap*, and Indian toIuiTo. 
,S. Judd, Margaret, i. 2. 
5. A thin stratum of compact limestone lying 
at the base of the Purbeck beds, and underlain 
by a shelly limestone locally known as roach, 
forming the uppermost division of the Portland 
series, as this portion of the Jurassic is devel- 
oped in the so-called Isle of Portland, England. 
6. In eiitom., the upper part of the integu- 
ment of the head, including the front and ver- 
tex. [Rare.] 
skulled (skuld), a. l< skuin + -eiV.] Having 
a skull ; craniate or cranial : noting all verte- 
brates except the amphioxus, in translating 
the term Craniata as contrasted with Acrania. 
skullert, An obsolete spelling of sculler 1 . 
skull-fish (skul'fish), . An old whale, or one 
more than two years of age. 
skulljoe, >i. A variant of sculjo. 
skull-less (skul'les), . [< skull + -less.'] Hav- 
ing no skull ; acranial : specifically noting that 
primary division of the Tertebrata which is rep- 
resented by the lancelet and known as Acrania. 
See cuts under Branch iostoma, lancelet, and 
Phari/ngobrancMi. 
Skull-roof (skul'rof), H. The roof of the skull ; 
the skullcap ; the calvarium. ilivurt. 
skull-shell (skul'shel), n. A brachiopod of the 
family Craniklee. 
skulpin, a. See sculpin. 
skumt, H. and r. An obsolete form of scum. 
skunk (skungk), . [Formerly also skunck, 
sqituncke (William Wood, 1634) (in an early F. 
form scangarcsse) ; of Algonkin origin, Abenaki 
seganku, Cree seecawk, a skunk.] 1. A fetid 
animal of the American genus Mephitis, M. 
mcphitica. In consequence of its abundance and general 
distribution, as well as certain peculiarities, the common 
Mephitis nttfhitica). 
skunk early attracted attention. It is mentioned in 1636 
by Sagard-Th^odat by several terms based on its Indian 
names, as scangaresse, mdnesqm, etc., and in the same pas- 
sage, in his "History of Canada," this author calls it in 
French "enfan du diable," a name long afterward quoted 
as specific. It is tlwfiskatta of Kalm's " Travels, " commonly 
translated polecat, a name, however, common to various 
other ill-scented Mustelidfe. (See def. 2.) Chinche, chin- 
no-, and moufetle (specifically inoufette d'Amtriqite) are 
book-names which have not been Englished. The New 
Latin synonyms are numerous. The animal inhabits all 
of temperate North America, and continues abundant in 
the most thickly settled regions. It is about as large as 
a house-cat, but stouter-bodied, with shorter limbs, and 
very long bushy tail, habitually erected or turned over 
the back. The color is black or blackish, conspicuously 
but to a variable extent set off with pure white generally 
as a frontal stripe, alarge crown-spot, a pairof broad diver- 
gent bands along the sides of the back, and white hairs 
mixed with the black ones of thetail. The fur is valuable, 
and when dressed is known as Alaska sable ; the blackest 
pelts bring the best price. The flesh is edible, when pre- 
pared with sufficient care. The skunk is carnivorous, like 
other members of the same family, with which its habits in 
general agree ; it is very prolific, bringing forth six or eight 
young in burrows. The fluid which furnishes the skunk's 
almost sole means of defense was long supposed and is still 
vulgarly believed to be urine. It is the peculiar secretion 
of a pair of perineal glands (first dissected by Jeffries Wy- 
iiiiin in 18441, similar to those of other ilustelidie, but very 
highly developed, with strong muscular walls, capacious 
reservoir, and copious golden-yellow secretion, of most 
5679 
offensive suffocating odor, capable of being spirted several 
feet in fine spray, and of soon scenting the air for several 
hundred yards. The pungent effluvium is not less dura- 
ble than that of musk, when the least quantity of the fluid 
has been spilled upon the person or clothes. It produces 
11:111 -i -a in Minif persons, and has occasionally been used in 
minute doses as a remedy for asthma. Cases of a kind of 
hydrophobia from the bite of the skunk, with fatal result, 
have been reported, and appear to be authentic. For tech- 
nical characters, see Mephitis. 
The Skwick or Pole-Cat is very common. 
R. Rogers, Account of North America (London , 1765X p. 225. 
By extension 2. Any species of one of the 
American genera Mepliiti*. Spilogale, and Cone- 
patus, and some others of the family Mustelidse, 
as the African zorille, Asiatic teledu or stink- 
ard, etc. See these words. 3. A base fellow: 
a vulgar term of reproach. 4. [< skunk, v.~] 
A complete defeat, as in some game in which 
not a point is scored by the beaten party. [Vul- 
gar, U. S.] 
skunk (skungk), r. t. [In def. lin allusion to the 
precipitate retreat or "complete rout" caused 
by the presence of a skunk ; in def. 2 appar. in 
allusion to the sickening odor; < skunk, .] 1. 
To beat (a player) in a game, as cards or bil- 
liards, completely, so that the loser fails to 
score. [Vulgar, U. S.] 2. To cause disease 
in or of; sicken; scale, or deprive of scales: 
said of fish in the live-well of a fishing-smack. 
[New Eng.] 
skunkbill (skungk'bil), n. Same as skunkhead, 1. 
skunk-bird (skungk'berd), n. Same as skunk- 
Wackbirrl. 
Skunk-blackbird (skungk'blak'berd), n. The 
male bobolink in full plumage: from the re- 
semblance of the black and white coloration to 
that of the skunk. See bobolink. 
skunk-cabbage (skungk'kaV'aj), . See cab- 
bagcl. 
skunkery (skungk'er-i), . ; pi. skunkeries (-iz). 
[< skunk + -ery.~\ A place where skunks are 
kept and reared for any purpose. 
skunk-farm (skungk'farm), n. Same as skunk- 
ery. 
skunkhead (skungk'hed), H. 1. The surf -sco- 
ter, a duck, (Edemia pcrspicillata : referring to 
the black and white coloration, like that of a 
skunk. Also called skunkbill and skunktop. See 
cut under Pelionetta. [New Eng.] 2. The 
Labrador or pied duck. See cut under pied. 
Webster, 1890. 
skunkish (skung'kish), a. [< skunk + -ish^."] 
Smelling like a skunk ; stinking. [U.S.] 
skunk-porpoise (skungk'por"pus), . See por- 
poise, and cut under Lagenorhynclms. 
skunktop (skungk'top), n. Same &s skunkhead, 1. 
skunkweed (skungk'wed), . Same as skunk- 
cabbage. 
skunner, '. and n. See scunner. 
Skupshtina (skupsh'ti-na), . [Serv., assem- 
bly ; Narodna Skupshtina, National Assem- 
bly.] The national assembly of Servia, con- 
sisting of one chamber and comprising 178 
members, three fourths elected and one fourth 
nominated by the crown. Thereisalsoalargerelected 
body called the Great Skupshtina, which deliberates on 
questions of extraordinary importance. 
skurft, . An obsolete form of scurf 1 . 
skurring (skur'ing), . The smelt. [North. 
Eng.] 
skurry, . and . See scurry. 
skut, n. See scat 2 . 
skutet, n. See scout*, schuit. 
skutterudite, n. [< Skutterud (see def.) + 
-ite 2 .] An arsenide of cobalt found in tin- 
white to lead-gray isometric crystals, also mas- 
sive with granular structure, at Skutterud in 
Norway. Also called by the Germans tesscral- 
kies. 
skuttle. A spelling of scuttle'*, scuttle^. 
sky 1 (ski), n.; pi. skies (skiz). [Early mod. E. 
also skye, skie; < ME. sky, skye, skie (pi. skies, 
skyes, skewes, skewis, skives'), < Icel. sky = Dan. 
Sw. sky, a cloud, = OS. scio, sceo, region of 
clouds, sky ; cf . Sw. Dan. sky-himmel, the sky 
(Mmmel, heaven: see heaven). Cf. AS. scua, 
scuwa = OHG. scuwo = Icel. skuggi, shade, 
shadow (see skug) ; akin to AS. sew, E. shower 1 , 
AS. 'scum, E. scum, etc., ult. < -\fsku, cover. 
For the transfer of sense from 'cloud' to 'sky,' 
cf. welkin, < AS. wolcen, the usual AS. word for 
'cloud.'] If. A cloud. 
That brigte skie bi-foren hem flegt. 
Genesis and Exodus (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3643. 
He . . . leet a certain wynde to go. 
That blew so hidously and hye, 
That it ne leete not a skye 
In al the welken longe and brood. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1800. 
skyft 
2. The region of clouds, wind, and rain; that 
part of the earth's atmosphere in which mete- 
orological phenomena take place : often used 
in the plural. 
A thondir with a thicke itayn thrublit in the skewet. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7619. 
An hour after midnight the skie began to clear. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 158. 
Heavily the low sky raining 
Over tower'd Camelot. 
Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, iv. 
3. The apparent arch or vault of heaven, which 
in a clear day is of a blue color ; the firmament : 
often used in the plural. 
A clene conscience schal in that day 
More profile, & be more sett by. 
Than al the inuk A the money 
That euere was or schal be vndir the sky. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 179. 
Betwixt the centred earth and azure skies. 
Spenser, Muiopotmos, 1. 19. 
4. The supernal heavens; celestial regions; 
heaven : often in the plural with the same sense. 
He raised a mortal to the skies ; 
She drew an angel down. 
Dryden, Alexander's Feast, ' 
179. 
5. The upper rows of pictures in a picture-gal- 
lery ; also, the space near the ceiling. [Colloq.] 
Open Sky, sky with no intervening cover or shelter. 
The hole in the sky. Same as coal-sack, 2. To the skies, 
to the highest degree ; very highly : as, to laud a thing to 
the skies. 
Cowards extol true Courage to the Skies. 
Congreve, Of Pleasing. 
sky 1 (ski), v. t. ; pret. and pp. skied, ppr. skying. 
[\sky l , .] To raise aloft or toward the sky; 
specifically, to hang near the ceiling in an ex- 
hibition of paintings. [Colloq.] 
Fine, perhaps even finer than usual, are M. Fantin-La- 
tour's groups of flowers, two of which have been sense- 
lessly skied. The Academy, No. 890, p. 367. 
sky y . (' A variant of shy 2 . 
sky-blue (ski'blo'), a. arid . I. a. Of a lumi- 
nous blue suggesting the color of the sky, but 
really very unlike it from deficiency of chroma. 
II. . 1. A luminous but pale blue, supposed 
to resemble the color of the sky. 2. Skimmed 
milk; poor, thin, watery milk; milk adulter- 
ated with water : jocularly so called, in allusion 
to its color. 
Oh ! for that small, small beer anew, 
And (heaven's own type) that mild sky-blue 
That wash'd my sweet meals down. 
Hood, Retrospective Eeview. 
sky-born (ski'born), a. Born or produced in 
the sky ; of heavenly birth. Carlyle, Sir Wal- 
ter Scott. 
sky-clad (ski'klad), a. [Tr. of Skt, digam- 
bara, ' having the four quarters for clothing.'] 
Clothed in space ; naked. [Colloq.] 
The statues of the Jinas in the Jain temples, some of 
which are of enormous size, are still always quite naked ; 
but the Jains themselves have abandoned the practice, 
the Digambaras being sky-clad at meal time only, and the 
Swetambaras being always completely clothed. 
Encyc. Brit,, XIII. 544. 
sky-COlor (ski'kul"pr), n. The color of the sky ; 
a particular tint of blue ; azure. 
A very handsome girdle of a sky colour and green (in 
French called pers et vert). 
Urquhart, tr. of Rabelais, ii. 31. 
Sky-colored (ski'kul"ord), a. Like the sky in 
color; blue; azure. Addition. 
sky-drain (ski'dran), n. An open drain, or a 
drain filled with loose stones not covered with 
earth, round the walls of a building, to prevent 
dampness; an air-drain. 
Sky-dyed (ski'did), a. Colored like the sky. 
There figs, ski/-dy'd, a purple hue disclose. 
W. Broome, in Pope's Odyssey, xi. 727. 
Skye (ski), n. [ Short f or Skye terrier.'] A Skye 
terrier. See terrier. 
skyey (skl'i), a. [Also sometimes skiey ; (.sky 1 
+ -ey.i 1. Like the sky, especially as regards 
color: as, skyey tones or "tints. 2. 'Proceeding 
from or pertaining to the sky or the clouds; 
situated in the sky or upper air. 
A breath thou art, 
Servile to all the skyey influences, 
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, 
Hourly afflict. Shak., M. for M., iii. i. 8. 
Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers 
Lightning, my pilot, sits. Shelley, The Cloud. 
The Hindoos draw 
Their holy Ganges from a skiey fount. 
Wordsworth, Excursion, iii. 
sky-flower (ski'flpu'er), M. A plant of the ge- 
nus Duranta (which see), 
skyftt, . A Middle English form of shift. 
