Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A long oar used at the stern of a boat and moved from side to side to propel the boat forward.
  • noun One of a pair of light oars designed for use by a single rower.
  • noun A small light racing boat for one, two, or four rowers, each using a pair of sculls.
  • intransitive verb To propel (a boat) with a scull or a pair of sculls.
  • intransitive verb To use a scull or a pair of sculls to propel a boat.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See skull.
  • noun A short, light, spoon-bladed oar, the loom of which is comparatively short, so that one person can row open-handed with a pair of them, one on each side.
  • noun An oar used to propel a boat by working it from side to side over the stern, the blade, which is always kept in the water, being turned diagonally at each stroke. See cut in preceding column.
  • noun A small boat for passengers; a skiff; a wherry.
  • To propel with one oar worked at the stern: as, to scull a boat.
  • To propel with sculls.
  • To work an oar against the water, at the stern of a boat, in such a way as to propel the boat. See sculling.
  • To be sculled, or capable of being propelled by a scull or sculls: as, the boat sculls well.
  • noun An obsolete form of school.
  • noun See skull.
  • In skating, to move forward or back without lifting the blades from the ice.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.), obsolete The skull.
  • noun A shoal of fish.
  • intransitive verb To impel a boat with a scull or sculls.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To impel (a boat) with a pair of sculls, or with a single scull or oar worked over the stern obliquely from side to side.
  • noun A boat; a cockboat. See sculler.
  • noun One of a pair of short oars worked by one person.
  • noun A single oar used at the stern in propelling a boat.
  • noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The common skua gull.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A single oar mounted at the stern of a boat and moved from side to side to propel the boat forward.
  • noun One of a pair of oars handled by a single rower.
  • noun A small rowing boat, for one person.
  • noun A light rowing boat used for racing by one, two, or four rowers, each operating two oars (sculls), one in each hand.
  • verb To row a boat using a scull or sculls.
  • verb To skate while keeping both feet in contact with the ground or ice.
  • noun Obsolete form of skull.
  • noun A skull cap. A small bowl-shaped helmet, without visor or bever.
  • verb Australia, New Zealand, slang To drink the entire contents of (a drinking vessel) without pausing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb propel with sculls
  • noun a long oar that is mounted at the stern of a boat and moved left and right to propel the boat forward
  • noun a racing shell that is propelled by sculls
  • noun each of a pair of short oars that are used by a single oarsman

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sculle.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See skull.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sculle ("a type of oar"), Unknown

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