Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as skilligalee.

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

  • noun obsolete, nautical Skillygalee.
  • adjective Scotland Skilled, skilful.

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

  • noun a thin porridge or soup (usually oatmeal and water flavored with meat)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abbreviation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From skill +‎ -y.

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Examples

  • ` Three parts 'means three-quarters of a pint, and ` skilly' is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.

    The Carter and the Carpenter 1903

  • "skilly" is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.

    THE CARTER AND THE CARPENTER 2010

  • "If you couldn't get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice 'ot bowl of soup called skilly, and bread better'n any one knows' ow to make now, reg'lar WHITE bread, gov'ment bread."

    The War in the Air 1906

  • Breakfast at 6: 00 A.M. might be bread and a gruel called "skilly" made with oatmeal or moldy meat.

    Portrait of a Killer Cornwell, Patricia 1930

  • "Three parts" means three-quarters of a pint, and "skilly" is a fluid concoction of three quarts of oatmeal stirred into three buckets and a half of hot water.

    The People of the Abyss Jack London 1896

  • It consisted of gruel, or, in prison parlance, "skilly," and another little brown loaf.

    Prisoner for Blasphemy 1882

  • The reader will understand the position better if I remind him that the only material preparation I had in the morning for the task of defending myself against Sir Hardinge Giffard and Mr. Maloney was six ounces of dry bread and a little thin cocoa, which the doctor had ordered instead of the "skilly" to stop my diarrhoea.

    Prisoner for Blasphemy 1882

  • To remove this evil influence, I was subjected to the following operation, which was prescribed and superintended by a neighbour "skilly" in such matters: -- A sixpence was borrowed from a neighbour, a good fire was kept burning in the grate, the door was locked, and I was placed upon a chair in front of the fire.

    Folk Lore Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century James Napier 1847

  • “If you couldn’t get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice ‘ot bowl of soup called skilly, and bread better’n any one knows ‘ow to make now, reg’lar WHITE bread, gov’ment bread.”

    The War in the Air Herbert George 2006

  • 'skilly' includes all the indelicacies of the season, with champagne,

    Oscar Wilde Harris, Frank 1916

Comments

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  • "Sc. and north. dial.

    Also skeely, skeily.

    Skilled, skilful; having considerable skill in some respect."

    - OED2

    September 4, 2009

  • "'Because you're a stiff-necked, rascally, rebellious, unruly rout of predestined skilly-swillers,' he would yell."

    The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, p 185 of the New York Review of Books hardcover

    July 17, 2013