skit
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L18448 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
noun
Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse skjúta (“to shoot, dart, move quickly”), variant of skjóta. Compare flytja (“to move”). Alternately, perhaps a back-formation from skittish, which in turn may derive from Old Norse or another North Germanic language.
- A short comic performance done by amateurs.
- A jeer or sally; a brief satire.
“That is a mere skit compared with this strange performance.”
- A wanton girl; a wench.
“However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie—did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.”
- A short, sharp shower (of rain).
“... there come on a 'skit' of rain, and I made for one of his barns for shelter.”
“Suddenly there came a little volley of sharp drops - not of the liquid he desired - dashed into the trumpeter's red face , and against the back of the parson's hat - the first skit of rain, that seemed rather to rise as if from a blow-pipe, than fall from the clouds.”
- Diarrhea, in livestock; the scour.
“The Cause and Nature of the Skit, or Scour, of Sheep and Lambs.”
“[…] quality in the seeds which he cannot account for, that of killing lambs at about ten days old; they die of the skit, or scouring; and it is particularly experienced in new inclosures; […]”
verb
Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse skjúta (“to shoot, dart, move quickly”), variant of skjóta. Compare flytja (“to move”). Alternately, perhaps a back-formation from skittish, which in turn may derive from Old Norse or another North Germanic language.
- To make fun of.
- To caper; to skip or run lightly and quickly.
“Yet soon's she hears me mention Muirland Willie, / She skits an' flings like ony towmont filly- […]”
“The big man stood across, as if to hide the cart; but the man behind the horse skitted back into a bush, very nimble and clever, but not quite smart enough.”