Skull

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

Skull, n. [See School a multitude.].

 A school, company, or shoal.  [1913 Webster]
"A knavish skull of boys and girls did pelt at him."  Warner.  [1913 Webster]
"These fishes enter in great flotes and skulls."  [1913 Webster]

Skull, n. [OE. skulle, sculle, scolle; akin to Scot. skull, skoll, a bowl, Sw. skalle skull, skal a shell, and E. scale; cf. G. hirnschale, Dan. hierneskal. Cf. Scale of a balance.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  The head or brain; the seat of intelligence; mind.  [1913 Webster]

  "Skulls that can not teach, and will not learn."  [1913 Webster]
•  A covering for the head; a skullcap.  [1913 Webster]

  "Let me put on my skull first."  [1913 Webster]
•  A sort of oar. See Scull.  [1913 Webster]

Skull and crossbones, a symbol of death. See Crossbones.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Skull, n.
1 the bony case of the brain of a vertebrate.
2 a the part of the skeleton corresponding to the head. b this with the skin and soft internal parts removed. c a representation of this.
3 the head as the seat of intelligence.

Idiom

out of one's skull sl. out of one's mind, crazy. skull and crossbones a representation of a skull with two thigh-bones crossed below it as an emblem of piracy or death. skull session US sl. a discussion or conference.

Derivative

skulled adj. (also in comb.).

Etymology

ME scolle: orig. unkn.

THESAURUS

Skull

Azrael, Black Death, Death, Grim Reaper, Pale Death, Reaper, angel of death, brain box, brainpan, cranium, crossbones, epicranium, memento mori, pale horse, pale rider, pericranium, sickle of Death, skull and crossbones, that fell sergeant, that grim ferryman, white cross

ROGET THESAURUS

Skull

Intellect

N intellect, mind, understanding, reason, thinking principle, rationality, cogitative faculties, cognitive faculties, discursive faculties, reasoning faculties, intellectual faculties, faculties, senses, consciousness, observation, percipience, intelligence, intellection, intuition, association of ideas, instinct, conception, judgment, wits, parts, capacity, intellectuality, genius, brains, cognitive powers, intellectual powers, wit, ability, wisdom, Vernunft, Verstand, soul, spirit, ghost, inner man, heart, breast, bosom, penetralia mentis, divina particula aurae, heart's core, the Absolute, psyche, subliminal consciousness, supreme principle, brain, organ of thought, seat of thought, sensorium, sensory, head, headpiece, pate, noddle, noggin, skull, scull, pericranium, cerebrum, cranium, brainpan, sconce, upper story, central processing unit, CPU, arithmetic and logical unit, ALU, metaphysics, psychics, psychology, ideology, mental philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of the mind, pneumatology, phrenology, craniology, cranioscopy, ideality, idealism, transcendentalism, spiritualism, immateriality, universal concept, universal conception, metaphysician, psychologist, intellectual, mental, rational, subjective, metaphysical, nooscopic, spiritual, ghostly, psychical, psychological, cerebral, animastic, brainy, hyperphysical, superphysical, subconscious, subliminal, immaterial, endowed with reason, in petto, ens rationis, frons est animi janua, locos y ninos dicen la verdad, mens sola loco non exulat, my mind is my kingdom, stern men with empires in their brains, the mind, the music breathing from her face, thou living ray of intellectual Fire.