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Webster 1913 Edition


Skull

Skull

,
Noun.
[See
School
a multitude.]
A school, company, or shoal.
[Obs.]
A knavish
skull
of boys and girls did pelt at him.
Warner.
These fishes enter in great flotes and skulls.
Holland.

Skull

,
Noun.
[OE.
skulle
,
sculle
,
scolle
; akin to Scot.
skull
,
skoll
, a bowl, Sw.
skalle
skull,
skal
a shell, and E.
scale
; cf. G. hirn
schale
, Dan. hierne
skal
. Cf.
Scale
of a balance.]
1.
(Anat.)
The skeleton of the head of a vertebrate animal, including the brain case, or cranium, and the bones and cartilages of the face and mouth. See Illusts. of
Carnivora
, of
Facial angles
under
Facial
, and of
Skeleton
, in Appendix.
☞ In many fishes the skull is almost wholly cartilaginous but in the higher vertebrates it is more or less completely ossified, several bones are developed in the face, and the cranium is made up, wholly or partially, of bony plates arranged in three segments, the frontal, parietal, and occipital, and usually closely united in the adult.
2.
The head or brain; the seat of intelligence; mind.
Skulls
that can not teach, and will not learn.
Cowper.
3.
A covering for the head; a skullcap.
[Obs. & R.]
Let me put on my
skull
first.
Beau. & Fl.
4.
A sort of oar. See
Scull
.
Skull and crossbones
,
a symbol of death. See
Crossbones
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Skull

SKULL

,
Noun.
1.
The bone that forms the exterior of the head, and incloses the brain; the brain-pan. It is composed of several parts united at the sutures.
2.
A person.
Skulls that cannot teach and will not learn.
3.
Skull, for skeal or school, of fish