skelf
Icelandic edit
Verb edit
skelf
Scots edit
Etymology 1 edit
Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle Dutch schelf (“a scale, flake or splinter of wood”).
Noun edit
skelf (plural skelfs)
- A splinter or sliver of wood.
- A thin or diminutive person.
- 1992, Iain Banks, The Crow Road:
- 'Like I say; I could have got the baby-sitter to help me with him, but she's just a skelf...not our regular girl.'
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English schelfe and Old Norse skjalf, both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skelfō.
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
skelf (plural skelfs)
Verb edit
skelf (third-person singular simple present skelfs, present participle skelfin, simple past skelft, past participle skelft)
- To lay or set (a person or thing) up, as on a high shelf; to elevate in importance.