Skittle

//ˈskɪtəl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One of the wooden targets used in skittles.

    "By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines."

  2. 2
    a bowling pin of the type used in playing ninepins or (in England) skittles wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To play skittles. intransitive
  2. 2
    play skittles wordnet
  3. 3
    (with down) To squander one's money. transitive
  4. 4
    (sometimes with out) To rapidly bowl out a succession of batsmen. transitive
  5. 5
    (sometimes with out) To rapidly bowl out a succession of batsmen.; To defeat easily. figuratively, transitive
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  1. 6
    To knock down (skittles). transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
clitorislittle man in the boatninepinninepinpinpin

Example

More examples

"He only managed to bowl down one skittle out of nine."

Etymology

Origin unknown. Perhaps of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse skutill (“bolt, harpoon”), related to skjóta (“to shoot”), but the OED dismisses this connection as conjecture. The Old Norse word is related to Swedish and Danish skyttel (“shuttle, child's toy”). Compare also Old English sċytel (“a dart, bolt”). More at shuttle.

Related phrases

skittle alleyskittle outskittle-dogtitty skittle

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.