is properly applied to fish, especially the grey mullet which visits the coast in the autumn, and so metaphorically to beggars who go in companies. Milton uses the word
"sculls that oft
Bank the mid sea."
Paradise Lost, Book vii.
Shakspeare, too, speaks of "scaled sculls" (Troilus and Cressida, Act v. sc. 5). The expression "school of whales," which we so often find in Arctic and whaling voyages is nothing but this word slightly altered. According to Miss Gurney's Glossary of Norfolk words (Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855), the word "school" is applied to herrings on the south-eastern coast. Juliana Berners, in the Book of St. Albans, curiously enough says that we should speak of "a sculke of foxes, and a sculle of frerys."—Quoted in Müller's Science of Language, p. 61.
Setty. Eggs are said to be "setty" when they are sat upon.
Shammock, To. To slouch. "A shammocking man" means an idle, good-for-nothing person. Applied also to animals. "A shammocking dog," means almost a thievish, stealing dog, thus showing how the word is akin to shamble, scamble, which last verb also signifies to obtain any thing by false means.
Shear, After-. The. The second crop of grass. Called in the Midland Counties "the eddish," and also the "latter-math," or "after-math."
Sheets'-axe, A. An oak apple. See chap. xvi. p. 183.
Shelf, A. A bank of sand or pebbles, or shallow in a river, or even the ford itself. Milton uses the word in Comus:—
"On the tawny sands and shelves."
Hence we got the adjective "shelvy," also in common use, and employed by Falstaffe—"The shore was shelvy and shallow" (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii., sc. 5). It is this latter word, which Mr. Halliwell and Mr. Wright must mean instead of "shelly," and which they define as "an ait in a river." The word is probably from the same Scandinavian root as shoal.
Shim. Lean. "He's a shim fellow," that is, thin. It is used, I see from Mr. Cooper's glossary, for a shadow, in the western division of Sussex; and I think I have somewhere met with it in the sense of a ghost.
Shoak, Shock, Shuck, Off, To. To break off short. Thus gravel is said to shock off at any particular stratum, or "list," or "scale," as it would be called. See the following word.
Shock, A. Not applied merely to corn, but to anything else. "A shock of sand" means a line or band of sand, called also a "list," or "lissen," or "bond," or "scale," and sometimes "drive:" which last, however, has a more particular reference to the direction of the stratum.
Size. Thickness, consistency. "The size of the gruel" means its consistency.
Skimmer-cake, A. A small pudding made up from the remnants of another, and cooked upon a "skimmer," the dish with which the milk is skimmed. Nearly equivalent to the "girdle-cake," north of England.
Skrow. Shattered or battered.
Slab, A. A thick slice, lump, used like squab, which see. Thus we hear of "a slab of bacon," meaning a large piece. Opposed to "snoule," which signifies a small bit.—"I have just had a snoule," means I have only had a morsel.
Slink, A. "A slink of a thing," in which phrase the word is only found, is alike applied to objects animate or inanimate, and means either a poor, weak, starved creature, or anything which is small and not of good quality.
Slut, A. A noise, sound. "A slut of thunder," means a chip or peal of thunder. It is in this sense that the word is most generally used.
