Word.ws English Dictionary

scally

/ˈskæli/

scally noun: a rascal or miscreant, a scallywag.

Noun

scally (plural scallies)

  1. (derogatory) A rascal or miscreant, a scallywag.
  2. (Northern England, derogatory, especially) A jobless yob who has little or no education, often associated with antisocial behaviour and crime.
  3. A flat cap or driving cap.

Proper noun capitalized: Scally

Scally (plural Scallys)

  1. A surname from Irish.

Forms of scally

Noun
pluralscallies
Proper noun
pluralScallys
alternative formSkelly

Origin of scally

Abbreviation of scallywag.

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Mac Scalaidhe, a patronymic surname from scolaidhe (“scholar”).

Words that rhyme with scally

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scally

What does scally mean?
Scally means a rascal or miscreant, a scallywag.
What part of speech is scally?
Scally can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce scally?
Scally is pronounced /ˈskæli/.
What is the plural of scally?
The plural of scally is scallies.

Words near scally in the dictionary

  1. scallops
  2. scallopwing
  3. scallopwings
  4. scallopwise
  5. scalls
  6. scally
  7. Scallys
  8. scallywag
  9. scallywaggery
  10. scallywags
  11. scalma

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scally (page history and authors); Scally (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scally.wav.

Cite this entry: “scally.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scally. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.