skittlen.
/skɪt(ə)l/ 1.
a. plural. A game traditionally played with nine pins set in a square upon a wooden frame, an angle of which is directed towards the player, who endeavours to bowl down the pins in as few throws as possible; = ninepins n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > [noun]
kaylesc1325
skaylesa1566
ninepins1580
pin1580
skittles1634
kittle-pins1649
skayle-pins1656
nine pegs1675
four corners1730
Dutch pins1801
Dutch rubbers1801
long bowling1801
ten-pins1807
squails1847
ten-pin bowling1934
1634 in Footman Hist. Parish Ch. Chipping Lambourn (1894) 120 William Gyde..for playing at skittolles on Sunday.
1666 A. Wood Life & Times (1892) II. 96 Dice, cards, sketells, shuffle-boords, billiard tables.
1748 J. Wesley Wks. (1872) II. 120 I was one day playing at skittles with some of these.
1773 A. Jones (title) The Art of Playing at Skittles; or the Laws of Nine-Pins displayed.
1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. i, in Poems 36 All the joys that ale and skittles give.
1865 J. Lubbock Prehist. Times xi. 358 The Feegeeans..have also a game resembling skittles.
b. In the phrase (not) all beer and skittles, or variants of this, used to denote that something is (not) unmixed enjoyment.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > [phrase] > is or is not unmixed enjoyment
(not) all beer and skittles1837
a good, etc., time was had by all1865
the mind > emotion > suffering > misery > [phrase]
(not) all beer and skittles1837
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xl. 438 It's a reg'lar holiday to them—all porter and skettles.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. ii. 46 Life isn't all beer and skittles.
1870 R. B. Mansfield School Life Winchester Coll. 138 But Football wasn't all beer and skittles to the Fags.
1897 ‘Ouida’ Massarenes v Life isn't all skittles and swipes... You always seem to think it.
1931 A. Christie Sittaford Myst. xxvi. 210 ‘It's an experience, isn't it?’ ‘Teach him life can't be all beer and skittles,’ said Robert Gardner maliciously.
1963 D. Ogilvy Confessions Advertising Man (1964) i. 12 Managing an advertising agency isn't all beer and skittles.
c. colloquial. Nonsense; rubbish. Also used interjectionally.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > nonsense, rubbish > [noun]
magged talea1387
moonshine1468
trumperyc1485
foolishness1531
trash1542
baggage1545
flim-flam1570
gear1570
rubbisha1576
fiddle-faddle1577
stuff1579
fible-fable1581
balductum1593
pill1608
nonsense1612
skimble-skamble1619
porridge1642
mataeology1656
fiddle-come-faddle1663
apple sauce1672
balderdash1674
flummery1749
slang1762
all my eye1763
diddle-daddle1778
(all) my eye (and) Betty Martin1781
twaddle1782
blancmange1790
fudge1791
twiddle-twaddle1798
bothering1803
fee-faw-fum1811
slip-slop1811
nash-gab1816
flitter-tripe1822
effutiation1823
bladderdash1826
ráiméis1828
fiddlededee1843
pickles1846
rot1846
kelter1847
bosh1850
flummadiddle1850
poppycock1852
Barnum1856
fribble-frabble1859
kibosh1860
skittle1864
cod1866
Collyweston1867
punk1869
slush1869
stupidness1873
bilge-water1878
flapdoodle1878
tommyrot1880
ruck1882
piffle1884
flamdoodle1888
razzmatazz1888
balls1889
pop1890
narrischkeit1892
tosh1892
footle1894
tripe1895
crap1898
bunk1900
junk1906
quatsch1907
bilge1908
B.S.1912
bellywash1913
jazz1913
wash1913
bullshit?1915
kid-stakes1916
hokum1917
bollock1919
bullsh1919
bushwa1920
noise1920
bish-bosh1922
malarkey1923
posh1923
hooey1924
shit1924
heifer dust1927
madam1927
baloney1928
horse feathers1928
phonus-bolonus1929
rhubarb1929
spinach1929
toffeea1930
tomtit1930
hockey1931
phoney baloney1933
moody1934
cockalorum1936
cock1937
mess1937
waffle1937
berley1941
bull dust1943
crud1943
globaloney1943
hubba-hubba1944
pish1944
phooey1946
asswipe1947
chickenshit1947
slag1948
batshit1950
goop1950
slop1952
cack1954
doo-doo1954
cobbler1955
horse shit1955
nyamps1955
pony1956
horse manure1957
waffling1958
bird shit1959
codswallop1959
how's your father1959
dog shit1963
cods1965
shmegegge1968
pucky1970
taradiddle1970
mouthwash1971
wank1974
gobshite1977
mince1985
toss1990
arse1993
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > nonsense, rubbish > nonsense! [interjection]
strawc1412
tilly-vallya1529
flam-flirt1590
fiddlestick1600
fiddle-faddle1671
stuff1701
snuff1725
fudge1766
fiddlededeea1784
rats1816
havers1825
humbug1825
gammon1827
rubbish1839
pickles1846
rot1846
skittle1864
slush1869
flapdoodle1878
quatsch1907
phooey1908
tommyrot1931
balls1938
no shit1939
bollocks1940
phonus-bolonus1955
hockey1961
leave it out!1969
1864 Orchestra 12 Nov. 104/1 Se faire applaudir is not ‘to make onesself applauded’, and ‘joyous comedian’ is simply skittles.
1886 R. Kipling Departm. Ditties (ed. 2) 43 ‘Where is your heat?’ says he, ‘Coming,’ says I to Pagett. ‘Skittles!’ says Pagett, M.P.
1904 F. T. Bullen Creatures of Sea xxiv. 354 [He told me] That they never ate and never rested because they had no feet, and other skittles of the kind.
1905 Author 1 Feb. 149 Mag. A man has..more self-restraint. Char. Skittles! That's the last thing he's got.
d. colloquial. Chess played without serious application.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > board game > chess > [noun] > not played seriously
skittle1856
1856 C. Tomlinson Chess Player's Ann. 61 Nor will our royal Game less royal sound, If shallow men play skittles on the ground, Where first-rate Chess sedately sits in state, And spends long hours accomplishing a mate.
1868 Westm. Chess Club Papers 1 87 With a great many good people the fascinations ascribed to Chess are entirely derived from what we may call the skittle phase of it.
1894 Daily News 30 May 3/6 There is, as every experienced chessist knows, all the difference in the world between what is known as off-hand play or ‘skittles’ and chess.
1940 Prins & Wood tr. Euwe's Meet Masters i. 14 Every game of chess, serious or ‘skittles’.
2. One of the wooden pins with which this game is played. Cf. ninepins n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > [noun] > pin(s)
kaylesc1325
kayle-pin1621
ninepins1664
skittle1680
pin1694
kittles1697
1680 Merry Milkmaid Islington i. B To cleave you from the scull to the Twist, and make nine Skittles of thy bones.
1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 758/1 The player..tries to knock down the whole of the skittles in a given number of throws.
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 820/2 A crucible taking the shape of a skittle.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, in sense ‘used in, or for playing at, the game of skittles’.
skittle-alley n.
ΚΠ
1755 Connoisseur No. 68. ⁋2 Every skittle-alley half a mile out of town is embellished with green arbours and shady retreats.
skittle-ball n.
ΚΠ
1825 J. M. Good Study Med. (ed. 2) V. 313 The bronchocele had increased to the size of a skittle-ball.
skittle-bowl n.
ΚΠ
1733 J. Tull Horse-hoing Husbandry xxiii. 180 A Piece of Wood of the Shape of a Skittle Bowl.
skittle-frame n.
ΚΠ
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod Introd. §38 All the skittle-frames in or about the city of London.
skittle-ground n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > [noun] > area on which skittles is played
skittle-ground1737
1737 London Mag. Sept. 477/2 Such days would still be much better employed in that Way, than in sotting at an Ale-House, or loitering in a Skettle or Nine-Pine Ground.
1771 M. Allen Let. in F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 131 Pray get the skittle ground marked out.
1971 Country Life 9 Dec. 1673/3 In 1773, the spring was covered over, and the site reverted to a simple public house with a skittle-ground attached.
skittle-pin n.
ΚΠ
1665 C. Cotton Scarronnides 89 Nor did I ere make skittle-pin-bones, Or bobbins of Anchises shin-bones.
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod iii. vii. 203 The kayle-pins were afterwards called..kittle-pins, and hence..skittle-pins.
C2. Miscellaneous.
a.
skittle-maker n.
ΚΠ
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Skittle-maker, a turner who shapes wooden skittles.
skittle-player n.
ΚΠ
1822 W. Hazlitt Table-talk II. vii. 158 As the skittle-player bends his body to give a bias to the bowl.
skittle pool n.
ΚΠ
1884 Sat. Rev. 7 June 758/1 Skittle pool and other minor games.
skittle-sharp n.
ΚΠ
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 345/2 I was not..a skittle sharp, for I never entered into a plot to victimise any person.
1881 Daily News 23 Dec. 5/6 The..victim of the skittle-sharp is..told that a man..who is very silly, is coming to play..and that if the dupe will ‘make one’ in the pitiful robbery he shall share in the proceeds.
skittle swindle n.
ΚΠ
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 345/2 Getting into a hobble relative to a skittle swindle.
b.
skittle-playing n.
ΚΠ
1767 A. Campbell Lexiphanes 61 During a season of skittle-playing.
skittle-sharping n.
ΚΠ
1862 J. Binny in H. Mayhew London Labour (new ed.) Extra vol. 309/1 Others betake themselves to card-sharping and skittle-sharping.
c.
skittle-shaped adj.
ΚΠ
1869 A. R. Wallace Malay Archipel. I. 374 They are all skittle-shaped, larger in the middle than at the base.
C3.
Categories »
skittle-pot n. a jeweller's crucible fashioned like a skittle (Knight, 1875).
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
skittlev.
/skɪt(ə)l/ 1. intransitive. To play at the game of skittles.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > play ninepins or ten-pins [verb (intransitive)]
skittle1865
1865 Good Words 6 125/2 On ‘Saint Monday’ they go ‘pigeoning’, ‘skittling’, or after some other amusement.
2.
a. transitive. With down: To spend or lose (money) prodigally; to squander.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > expenditure > waste of money or extravagance > spend extravagantly [verb (transitive)]
to piss (money, an opportunity, etc.) against the wall1540
lavish1542
melt1607
to piss away1628
unbowel1647
tap1712
sport1785
waster1821
blue1846
spree1859
to frivol away1866
blow1874
bust1878
skittle1883
to blow in1886
burst1892
bang1897
1883 Contemp. Rev. 44 609 There are many ways in which the Australian..can skittle down his money... He can lose £10,000 in a night at cards [etc.].
b. To knock down (skittles, etc.); Cricket, to bowl out (batters) in rapid succession. Also figurative: to kill, defeat easily.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > dismissal of batsman > put out [verb (transitive)] > manner of dismissal
bowl1719
to run out1750
catch1789
stump1789
st.1797
to throw out1832
rattle1841
to pitch out1858
clean-bowl1862
skittle1880
shoot1900
skittle1906
trap1919
the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (transitive)]
swevec725
quelmeOE
slayc893
quelleOE
of-falleOE
ofslayeOE
aquellc950
ayeteeOE
spillc950
beliveOE
to bring (also do) of (one's) life-dayOE
fordoa1000
forfarea1000
asweveOE
drepeOE
forleseOE
martyrOE
to do (also i-do, draw) of lifeOE
bringc1175
off-quellc1175
quenchc1175
forswelta1225
adeadc1225
to bring of daysc1225
to do to deathc1225
to draw (a person) to deathc1225
murder?c1225
aslayc1275
forferec1275
to lay to ground, to earth (Sc. at eird)c1275
martyrc1300
strangle1303
destroya1325
misdoa1325
killc1330
tailc1330
to take the life of (also fro)c1330
enda1340
to kill to (into, unto) death1362
brittena1375
deadc1374
to ding to deathc1380
mortifya1382
perisha1387
to dight to death1393
colea1400
fella1400
kill out (away, down, up)a1400
to slay up or downa1400
swelta1400
voida1400
deliverc1400
starvec1425
jugylc1440
morta1450
to bring to, on, or upon (one's) bierc1480
to put offc1485
to-slaya1500
to make away with1502
to put (a person or thing) to silencec1503
rida1513
to put downa1525
to hang out of the way1528
dispatch?1529
strikea1535
occidea1538
to firk to death, (out) of lifec1540
to fling to deathc1540
extinct1548
to make out of the way1551
to fet offa1556
to cut offc1565
to make away?1566
occise1575
spoil1578
senda1586
to put away1588
exanimate1593
unmortalize1593
speed1594
unlive1594
execute1597
dislive1598
extinguish1598
to lay along1599
to make hence1605
conclude1606
kill off1607
disanimate1609
feeze1609
to smite, stab in, under the fifth rib1611
to kill dead1615
transporta1616
spatch1616
to take off1619
mactate1623
to make meat of1632
to turn up1642
inanimate1647
pop1649
enecate1657
cadaverate1658
expedite1678
to make dog's meat of1679
to make mincemeat of1709
sluice1749
finisha1753
royna1770
still1778
do1780
deaden1807
deathifyc1810
to lay out1829
cool1833
to use up1833
puckeroo1840
to rub out1840
cadaverize1841
to put under the sod1847
suicide1852
outkill1860
to fix1875
to put under1879
corpse1884
stiffen1888
tip1891
to do away with1899
to take out1900
stretch1902
red-light1906
huff1919
to knock rotten1919
skittle1919
liquidate1924
clip1927
to set over1931
creasea1935
ice1941
lose1942
to put to sleep1942
zap1942
hit1955
to take down1967
wax1968
trash1973
ace1975
society > leisure > sport > winning, losing, or scoring > win, lose, or score [verb (transitive)] > win > defeat
overplayc1460
smother1676
lurch1678
outplay1702
thrash1789
defeat1830
spreadeagle1832
thresh1852
whitewash1867
blank1870
annihilate1886
nip1893
slam1907
plaster1919
skittle1919
rip1927
maul1928
demolish1938
massacre1940
trounce1942
hammer1948
murder1952
to shut out1952
zilch1957
zip1964
trip1974
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > play ninepins or ten-pins [verb (transitive)] > knock down pins
skittle1928
1880 John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack (ed. 17) 18 Mr. Chatterton ‘skittled’ the wickets down so rapidly.
1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 45 Skittled, killed.
1928 Daily Express 31 Mar. 3/4 Mine host and Mr. Herbert swung their arms, flung the cheeses, and skittled the pins.
1977 World of Cricket Monthly June 92/3 The Warwickshire bowling attack..skittled the students for a mere 59 in just 2½ hours.
c. Cricket. Similarly with out. Also, to dismiss (a team) cheaply.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > dismissal of batsman > put out [verb (transitive)] > manner of dismissal
bowl1719
to run out1750
catch1789
stump1789
st.1797
to throw out1832
rattle1841
to pitch out1858
clean-bowl1862
skittle1880
shoot1900
skittle1906
trap1919
1906 A. E. Knight Compl. Cricketer v. 172 Jim Jones thinks Sir Arthur Squire a rotten captain, who never gives him a chance to ‘skittle the rabbits out’.
1926 Westm. Gaz. 1 Sept. Glamorgan skittled out on difficult wicket.
1928 Daily Tel. 7 Feb. 16/1 Nupen skittled out the remaining batsmen.
1949 J. Symons Bland Beginning 216 Now that Anthony had found a length, he began to skittle out the batsmen.
1979 Daily Tel. 9 Aug. 1/3 Somerset's West Indian fast bowler, Joel Garner, took five wickets for 11 runs, helping to skittle out Kent for 60.
3. intransitive. (See skittle n. 1d.)
ΚΠ
1856 C. Tomlinson Chess Player's Ann. 54 If your opponent cannot appreciate fine play, nevertheless play your best; for by skittling as he skittles you degrade yourself without raising him.
Derivatives
ˈskittling n. (also attributive)
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > ninepins or ten-pins > [noun] > playing
skayling1579
skittling1890
1890 F. W. Robinson Very Strange Family 71 Throwing one piece of furniture at another in a skittling fashion.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
<
n.1634
v.1856