skulduggery
/ˌskʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.99 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "A private company cannot get away with a skulduggery of that sort. Once it has paid out its money for taxes, it cannot reach into the public treasury and get it back and apply it on its amortization account."
- "And you, O student, might do worse than to investigate the assorted sculduggeries of this obscure trio: […]"
- "The reports in his briefase had no bearing on war, peace, the dope traffic, the hydrogen bomb, or any of the other international skulduggeries that he associated with pursuers, men in trench coats, and wet sidewalks."
- "What exhibition of rapaciousness, race prejudice and political spoliation could be cheaper, commoner, or meaner? These are the little tyrannies and petty skullduggeries that make bitter the relations between the races."
- "And I have another reason which I will express to my St Paul friends, and that is, that they have always been controlled in their political action here by a class of men who have always some traps set for the country members—by men who are always up to this border ruffian kind of trickery—this kind of skullduggery, as it is called in Minnesota. And now St. Paul allows herself to be controlled by these same border ruffian politicians."
- "How did Hercules (Herc. of antiquity) slay the Hydrant and cleanse the stables of Oregon? Did it all by main force, didn't he? Power? Shenanigan? Skulduggery? Of course he did."
Etymology
An alteration of Scots sculduddery, sculdudrie (“adultery, unchaste behaviour; obscenity, lewdness”), of long-uncertain origin (probably a euphemism). Relation to skull is speculative at best and likely folk etymology. The American spelling skullduggery is in keeping with terms such as skillful and willful.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌskʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/
- British English: /skʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/