skiffle

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /skɪf.əl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪfəl

Etymology 1

Noun

skiffle (uncountable)

1. A type of folk music, with jazz and blues influences, using homemade or improvised instruments.

Etymology 2

From or related to Scots skiffle, from skiff (whence English skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”), which see for more). Related to skift (“light dusting of snow”).

Noun

skiffle (plural skiffles)

1. Synonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”)
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:skiffle.
   • 1999, Monte Hummel, Wintergreen: Reflections from Loon Lake:

     This is when hardy divers such as American mergansers, goldeneyes, buffleheads, and scaup pay my lake a late staging visit, bobbing on the last patches of open water against the season's first skiffles of snow. Gradually the nights get [colder].