shillelagh
Syllables: shil·le·lagh/ʃəˈleɪli/
shillelagh noun: a wooden (traditionally blackthorn (sloe) wood) club ending with a large knob.
Noun
shillelagh (plural shillelaghs)
- A wooden (traditionally blackthorn (sloe) wood) club ending with a large knob.
- [T]he stem of a stout young oak or ash tree, into the end of which, where the roots had been rounded off, a quantity of molten lead was poured, making the shillelagh more formidable in such hands than a sword would have been – much harder to parry, and impossible to break.1842, Charlotte Elizabeth, “Letter IX. The Dumb Boy.”, in Personal Recollections. … From the London Edition, New York, N.Y.: John S. Taylor & Co. No. 145 Nassau-Street, Brick Church Chapel, →OCLC...
- It beats all your guns and your rifles, / For it goes off whene'er you desire, / And it's sure to hit just what it aims at, / For shillelaghs they never miss fire.[1864], T. Maclagan, “The Twig of the Shannon”, in Maclagan's Musical Age Songster, Containing All the Most Popular Songs Sung by T. Maclagan, London: The Music-Publishing Company, 19 Peter's Hill...
- Any cudgel, whether or not of Irish origin.
Proper noun capitalized: Shillelagh
Shillelagh
Forms of shillelagh
| plural | shillelaghs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | shillala |
| alternative form | shillalah |
| alternative form | shillelah |
| alternative form | shillalagh |
| alternative form | shillaly |
| alternative form | shillely |
Origin of shillelagh
From Irish sail éille (“shillelagh”, literally “cudgel of a thong”), altered to match the name of the village of Shillelagh (from Irish Síol Éalaigh (literally “descendants of Éalach”), because the forest near it provided wood from which such clubs could be made.
Words that rhyme with shillelagh
Questions about shillelagh
- What does shillelagh mean?
- Shillelagh means a wooden (traditionally blackthorn (sloe) wood) club ending with a large knob.
- What part of speech is shillelagh?
- Shillelagh can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce shillelagh?
- Shillelagh is pronounced /ʃəˈleɪli/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shillelagh?
- The plural of shillelagh is shillelaghs.
Words near shillelagh in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shillelagh (page history and authors); Shillelagh (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: En-us-shillelagh.oga, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shillelagh.wav.
Cite this entry: “shillelagh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shillelagh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.