skelp

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skɛlp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English skelpen, probably of imitative origin. The noun is from Middle English skelp, from the verb.

Verb

skelp (third-person singular simple present skelps, present participle skelping, simple past and past participle skelped)

1. (transitive, Scotland, Northern England) To beat or slap.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24:

     But Mistress Munro would up and be at the door and in she'd yank Andy by the lug, and some said she'd take down his breeks and skelp him, but maybe that was a lie.

   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 67:

     My stomach was just sore and I was rubbing it. But he just reached and skelped me on the leg and I fell down and he waited for me to get up and he skelped me on the b*m.

2. (intransitive, Scotland) To move briskly along.

Noun

skelp (plural skelps)

1. A blow; a smart stroke.
   • 1833, Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log:

     They came crack down on their bottoms with a loud skelp on the seats.

2. (Scotland) A squall; a heavy fall of rain.
3. (Scotland) A large portion.

Etymology 2

Noun

skelp (plural skelps)

1. A narrow strip of rolled or forged metal, ready to be bent and welded to form a pipe.
   • 1836, William Newton, editor, The London Journal of Arts and Sciences; and Repertory of Patent Inventions, pages 407–8:

     […] he then heats one half of the skelp at a time in an air furnace, or other fire, and having so heated it, he passes the skelp between a pair of grooved rollers placed at the mouth of the furnace, for the purpose of uniting (or marrying, as he terms it) the edges of the metal ; that is, causing the edges of the open part of the skelp to be pressed together, and made to adhere and form a complete cylinder.

Verb

skelp (third-person singular simple present skelps, present participle skelping, simple past and past participle skelped)

1. (transitive) To form (a plate or bar of metal, etc.) into a skelp.
2. (transitive) To bend round (a skelp) in tube-making.

Anagrams

• kelps, spelk

Scots

Etymology

Probably imitative, or from Scottish Gaelic sgealp (“slap”).

Verb

skelp (third-person singular simple present skelps, present participle skelpin, simple past skelpt, past participle skelpt)

1. To beat, slap, now especially the backside.

   She skelpt ma doup

   She spanked my bottom

   A wis skelpt in the face fae the tree's beuch

   I was slapped in the face by the tree branch.