Word.ws English Dictionary

guykerl

guykerl noun: a giantess, typically a giant wife.

Noun

guykerl (plural guykerls)

  1. (Shetland) A giantess, typically a giant wife.
    • He went up his hill for a large stone he knew would be sufficient, but as he was returning, staggering under the weight of the enormous boulder, his Guykerl saw him and cried out jeeringly.1932, Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby, Shetland Traditional Lore, page 132
    • The giantesses or guykerls seem to have survived their husbands for some considerable time, for they continued to play an active part in folklore.1981, James R. Nicolson, Shetland Folklore, page 91

Forms of guykerl

pluralguykerls

Origin of guykerl

From English gyre-carlin, from Old Norse gýgr (“ogress”) + English carline (“old woman”).

Questions about guykerl

What does guykerl mean?
Guykerl means a giantess, typically a giant wife.
What part of speech is guykerl?
Guykerl is a noun.
What is the plural of guykerl?
The plural of guykerl is guykerls.

Words near guykerl in the dictionary

  1. Guyhirn
  2. guyhood
  3. guying
  4. guyings
  5. guyish
  6. guykerl
  7. guykerls
  8. guyle
  9. guyled
  10. guyles
  11. guylike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: guykerl (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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