skelps

Verb (1)

skelp (third-person singular simple present skelps, present participle skelping, simple past and past participle skelped)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To beat or slap with the hand.
   • But Mistress Munro would up and be at the door and in she'd yank Andy by the lug, and some said she'd take down his breeks and skelp him, but maybe that was a lie.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24
2. (Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To beat, pound or hammer.
   • ... hither blith comes tinker John, Who skelps the kettle, and sweet tunes the drone, […]1804, George Galloway, The Battle of Luncarty, Or the Valiant Hays Triumphant Over the Danish Invaders, page 15
3. (Scotland) To drive by blows; to drive (hard), to cause to move rapidly.
   • My fair opponents skelp me aff,[…]1861, Roger Quinn, The Heather Lintie: Being the Poetical Pieces, Spiritual and Temporal, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, page 112
4. (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To move briskly along; to run.
   • […] the lassie became extremely wild, ran like a hare, and […] skelped home in a crack, on the "light side of her foot," to Barniewater.1824, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia: or the Original Antiquated and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland, page 47
5. (intransitive) To rain heavily; (of rain) to fall.
   • ... more than halfway to the summit / A rain squall down on them did plummet, / Skelping down harder by the minute / We'll wait […](Can we date this quote?), John McCuaig, The Sennachie, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 158

Verb (2)

skelp (third-person singular simple present skelps, present participle skelping, simple past and past participle skelped)

1. (transitive) To form (a plate or bar of metal, etc.) into a skelp.

See all 11 meanings of skelp