SKITTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does skittle mean? 

• SKITTLE (noun)
  The noun SKITTLE has 1 sense:

1. a bowling pin of the type used in playing ninepins or (in England) skittles

  Familiarity information: SKITTLE used as a noun is very rare.

• SKITTLE (verb)
  The verb SKITTLE has 1 sense:

1. play skittles

  Familiarity information: SKITTLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SKITTLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bowling pin of the type used in playing ninepins or (in England) skittles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

ninepin; skittle; skittle pin

Hypernyms ("skittle" is a kind of...):

bowling pin; pin (a club-shaped wooden object used in bowling; set up in triangular groups of ten as the target)

Derivation:

skittle (play skittles)

• SKITTLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they skittle    ... he / she / it skittles   
Past simple: skittled   
Past participle: skittled   
-ing form: skittling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Play skittles

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "skittle" is one way to...):

bowl (engage in the sport of bowling)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

skittle (a bowling pin of the type used in playing ninepins or (in England) skittles)

 Context examples 

If you was to take to something, sir, said Mrs. Crupp, if you was to take to skittles, now, which is healthy, you might find it divert your mind, and do you good.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I heard, afterwards, that he was seen to play a lively game at skittles, before noon.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It may have been in consequence of Mrs. Crupp's advice, and, perhaps, for no better reason than because there was a certain similarity in the sound of the word skittles and Traddles, that it came into my head, next day, to go and look after Traddles.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urns that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of the red-brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles, for Time to play at.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)