Green’s Dictionary of Slang

oral sex, whether fellatio or cunnilingus.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 34: act of sucking the penis until ejaculation [...] skull job.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 540–41: [...] since ca. 1950.
1993		E. Izzi Tony’s Justice 130: Hell, a time or two in prison, Milt had given up a pack of smokes for a quick skull job.

(US gay) a fellator.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.

to receive oral intercourse.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 skull Definition: when a woman gives you oral sex. Example: I ’bout to go to the flat and get some skull.

to fellate.

1983		‘Paul Gable’ Mother and Daughter in Bondage i: Man, oh, man, ain’t had head like this for a long time [...] And you’re tellin’ me you ain’t never given some skull?
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 502: She’s smart, tender, funny and gives great skull.

to fellate.

1992

K. Lette Llama Parlour 194: Yo. Whip some skull on me, bitch [...] Put a lip-lock on ma hoagie.

(also skulled out) intoxicated by a drug or by an excess of alcohol.

1955		W. White ‘Wayne University Sl.’ AS XXX:4 305: skulled out of his head [...] v.phr. Intoxicated to an intense degree.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 182: They thought I was skulled out on something.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 57: The message, it seemed, hadn’t exactly got through to the drunks in the place. Lulled, dulled, skulled out of their heads.

(US black) anything committed to memory; oral tradition.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 190: They wrote that skull book on pimping.

(US black) to talk in a convincing and excessive manner.

1959

Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 53: Well, at my trial them pounders snapped their caps and skullbusted the judges.

1. (US) anything seen as especially intellectually challenging, esp. a hard college course.

1926		Virginia Spectator (Univ. VA) Oct. 17: Skull-buster, a particularly hard course .
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 18: Most of my skullbusters got solved at The School.

2. (US black) a police officer.

1934		J.L. Kuethe ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 27: skull-buster. A detective.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 277: That skull buster was known all the way up and down the line.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 83: There are 8 terms for ‘policeman’; including bluebird, Irvin, and skull-buster.

3. (also skullbust) a strong drink.

1940		J. Archibald ‘Short Order Crook’ in Ten Detective Aces Apr. 🌐 Wait here an’ I’ll mix up a pair of skull-busters for ya.
1963		Corsicana Dly Sun (TX) 1 Mar. 8/2: .
1983		M. Clumpner Nez Perce Legend 271: We got whiskey, rum and wine [...] and skull-bust being cooked by moonshiners from the hills.
1988		G. Matthews Little Red Rooster 56: Cheap wine and skull-bust tequila and dope by the handful.

4. (US) a hangover, a severe headache.

1949		Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 28 Dec. 13/3: Our custom to treat [...] the hangover or skullbuster [etc].
1957		Abilene Reporter-News (TX) 29 Sept. 54/1: First we louse up the Department Store job...an’ then you get this skull-buster.

(US) intellectually challenging.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 157: Needling some of them with his skullbusting classical jive.

1. a cosh, a bludgeon.

1847		Belfast News-Letter 24 Oct. 4/1: He produced [...] one of these desperate weapons denominated ‘skull-crackers’.
1849		Caledonian Mercury 15 Jan. 2/5: [He] struck Delany on the head with a ‘skullcracker.’ [...] The instrument is stated [...] to be formed of ‘whale bone with a lump of iron’ and resembled [...] a life preserver.
1854		Dly News (London) 31 July 3/2: Saw Magrath struck by two men with skull-crackers [...] I found the skull-crackers or life preservers in the carraige.
1865		Glasgow Herald 5 May 5/1: A man [...] called for any Scotch b— or Orange b— to fight [...] and I saw a skull-cracker in the hands of James Gavin [...] William then said — ‘I’m murdered with a skull-cracker’.
1872		Belfast News-Letter 16 Sept. 4/3: Constable Sullivan summoned John Shiels [...] for having in his possession [...] four skull-crackers weighted at the head.
1910		Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City, UT) 8 Oct. 4/2: Billy Peterson was struck by [...] a club, a billy, a skull-cracker or night stick.

2. (US) very strong alcohol.

1923		Reidsville Rev. (NC) 10 Jan. 1/3: Under the hallway [...] was found a number of gallons of skullcracker.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 36: Drifting harvest stiffs [...] wagon freighters went there for skull-cracker whisky.
1985		A. Wilkinson Moonshine 28: ‘After that they’d serve you South Carolina Corn.’ It is called [...] skull cracker [DARE].

3. (US) a large thuggish person.

1869		Sportsman (London) 17 July 4/1: Notes on News [...] It looks as if Colonel Henderson [...] brought a number of favourite skull-crackers with him to show us how the ‘peace’ can kept.
1926		L. Esson Bride of Gospel Place 81: Smithy: What’s the skull-cracker doing round here.
1927		(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 234: There behind him was the big skull-cracker of a Novak, looming up like a mountain in the dark. [Ibid.] 268: Keep your ears open, you big skull-cracker.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 285: The boy came out and in his rear — perhaps twenty feet behind — the skull-cracker rolled.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 59: He was hired as a skull-cracker by the circulation department of a New York tabloid.
1994		Star Trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 8 Feb. 10/1: Success [...] will require attending to the social misery that turns kids knto skullcrackers.

1. (US) hard physical work.

1927

(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 285: It’s me for hard labour, toot sweet. Skull-crackin’ is payin’ its twenty-five bucks a day.

2. (US) fighting.

1936

R.E. Sherwood Idiot’s Delight 114: We can’t have any skull-cracking in this club.

(US) a psychiatrist, a psychologist.

1958		L. Block ‘You Can’t Lose’ in One Night Stands (2008) 196: It’s psychological. Men are [...] afraid of some skull doctor who never saw them before and will never see them again.
1988		T.P. Doherty Teenagers and Teenpics 128: During sessions with ‘the skull doctor’ [...] Dino gradually reveals the source of his anger and violence.
1995		Star Trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 26 may 43/2: Cubs coach Billy Williams went ballistic. then ther was the Cubs’ ‘skull doctor’ [etc].

1. (usu. Aus.) to haul along, to drag by force.

1844		Sydney Morn. Herald 3 Sept. 3/1: If you are in want of a few voters set the bullies to ‘skull-drag’ them in.
1850		Fast Man 3:1 n.p.: Lord, how did you hit ’em up? Who was that cove that you scull-dragged off the butt.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Apr. 3/2: Look at my wrists and that’ll tell you how they’ve skulldragged me here.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 39/2: I’ve seen the marks on her head where he ‘skull-dragged’ her a few nights ago for speaking to an officer over the bar.
1874		Sydney Morn. Herald 6 Aug. 3/2: The managr [...] hopes [...] to work in a systematic manner and not have to skulldrag the quartz out.
1884		‘Experiences of a Cunt Philosopher’ in Randiana 14: My father [...] skulldragged me from beaneath Emma’s bed.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Feb. 1/3: People of that kind are [...] ‘skull-dragged’ out of the Chamber by their friends.
1911		E. Dyson ‘The Truculent Boy’ in Benno and Some of the Push 52: ‘You look who yer skull-dragging, see,’ said Nipper, and he sparred at Feathers. [Ibid.] 76: A splenetic man chased him up the lane, captured him, and skull-dragged him all the way back.
1921		Eve. World (NY) 30 Sept. 38/4: A tarantrula sat on a centipede’s chest, / And he laughed in ghoulish glee, / I’ll skulldrag that pestilent son of a gun, / If I don’t he’ll skulldrag me.
1932		E. Wallace Edgar Wallace Race Special 165: If only I’d got at him with a — with my hands, I’d have skull-dragged him !
1951		E. Hill Territory 445: Skulldrag, to: To haul along willy-nilly.
1961		T. Ronan Only a Short Walk 144: It ain’t going to pay anybody to skull-drag me back for a lousy hundred and forty quid.
1977		Sydney Morn. Herald 30 Dec. 23/4: You cannot mistake a strike by these powerful fish and it was essential that you did not try to skulldrag them in.

2. (US Und.) to demand a free drink in a bar.

1927		in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 171: Skull Dragging. – Begging for drinks in a saloon.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. (US teen) to study hard.

1943		Eugene Guard (OR) 7 July 4/1: Skulldragging through dreary texts.
1956		Bristol Dly Courier PA) 31 Oct. 23/4: We really have to skull-drag this year. I guess by the time you read this we will have our ‘Death Certificates’ (report cards).
1961		Long Beach Press-Telegram 14 Dec. 8: Skull drag is to study.

(Aus.) to work as a schoolteacher.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 May 15/1: When skull-driving in the Backblocks once I got a bad back which I couldn’t account for, till I discovered that my bed was stuffed with dirty wool, in lumps the size of one’s fist.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Nov. 13/3: When I was skull-driving, I never reckoned on any good results from R.C. children, because they were continually being shifted from my school to the convent-school and vice-versa.
1925		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Apr. 22/3: The best damper ever I had was made by a woman in whose house I lodged when skulldriving handy to Gundagai.

(US black) one’s mind, esp. in context of thoughts/memories that are stored there.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 99: I peeped into my skull file and saw that ‘Roost’ note.

(Aus.) a schoolteacher.

1901

Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Nov. 11/2: But then ‘Bung’ is a political force, and the poor skull-filler doesn’t count!

see fry n.

(US) heterosexual male-female intercourse whereby the male substitutes the mouth for the vagina; this differs from fellatio in that the man is active rather than passive; also used of man-to-man oral intercourse.

1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 151: usage: ‘You may call it fellatio in this Lexicon, but I call it a skull fuck.’.
1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 skull fuck fellatio, blow job, gummer, hummer.
2005		M. McCarty Dark Duets 97: She tiptoed to whisper in my ear, ‘You look like you'd be interested in a skull-fuck’.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 15: Foreplay means [...] getting a skull-fuck.
2008		C. Pierce Taken by Force 71: Grab that whore’s pretty white hair and skull fuck him [...] Faster! Stick it all the way down. He's a whore and you're in control. Fuck his mouth!
2012		J.L. Wheeler Strawberries & Other Erotic Fruits 83: I shot a huge load down the boy's throat [...] he settled back on his haunches and smiled widely, wiping his mouth. ‘Hottest skull fuck ever, dude.’.
2016		‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in hazlitt.net 31 Mar. 🌐 ‘Milkshake,’ ‘skull-fuck,’ ‘hummer,’ or ‘head’ all name it; likewise, you might suck a dick—or you might enjoy getting your cock sucked, or both.

1. of a man, to have intercourse with a woman, using her mouth rather than her vagina.

2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 skull fuck Definition: the act of pennilingus. Example: Yo, then I grabbed da bitch by da ears and I skull-fucked her.
2005		S. Kempton Central Time Zone 7: I would pistol grip her ears and skull fuck her baldheaded if I thought it would help.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 173: Hardcore shagging and skullfucking.

2. used as an expression of extreme physical aggression .

1973		R. Roth Sand in the Wind 108: Fag, if I ever catch you eyeballing me again, I'm gonna gouge your eye out and skull fuck you!
1987		Hasford & Kubrick Full Metal Jacket [movie script] Wipe that stupid-looking grin off your face, or I will gouge out your eyes and skull-fuck you.
2011		D. Hoover We Were Brothers 131: I’ll skull fuck you next time you drink too much of the Beam.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 36: The Grim Reaper [...] skull fucks you until your brain retreats inside itself and you forget how to even breathe.

an intellectual pursuit.

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 64: Pimping isn’t a sex game it’s a skull game.

to decapitate.

1981

T. Wilkinson Down and Out 157: You ought to be fucking skullnecked.

(US black) a mental note.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 90: I made a skull note to pop into the ‘Roost’.

(US black) to memorize.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 134: I skull noted her.

1. (US black) a cemetery.

1925		Miami News (FL) Mag. 23 Aug. 2/5: A large burial ground or ‘skull orchard’ as people sometimes refer to it.
1930		Emmett Miller [blackface dialogue] in Tosches (2001) n.p.: I ain’t gonna mess around inside no skull orchard.
1940		E.V. Mitchell Anchor to Windward 118: On the shore of one of the coves at Ragged Island is a tiny skull orchard where lie buried five unidentified seamen.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 1: Your wig might be tighten but I want you to most know it can be parted. And if the wagon have to roll, you’ll be skull orchard bound.
1971		in G. Mitchell Blow My Blues Away 183: If it wasn’t for them stamps, one-half of us would be over yonder in the skull orchard. Be dead somewhere.

2. (US) the brains, the intellect.

1946

Index Jrnl (Greenwood, SC) 26 Jan. 8/5: ‘I beat the books and really dug my skull...English is a pushover if a guy just cops a squat and works the skull orchard’.

3. a rough bar or nightclub.

1970		Tennessean (Nashville, TX) 11 Oct. 128/1: They had been playing what Wagoner refers to grinningly as ‘skull orchards — little clubs where you dive in and sing wearing a football helmet, with some chance of getting out without getting your head knocked in’.
1979		Eve. Sun (Baltimore, MD) 5 Oct. 11/6: One giant hit would change everything. He could play bigger halls than the modest ‘skull orchards’ he plays now.
1989		W. Nelson Autobiog. 356: Gilley’s is a fucking skull orchard [...] People throwing shit. They could shoot each other without us even knowing.
1990		Age (Melbourne) 16 Feb. 47/3: His fame and fortune hasn’t always flowed as freely as booze in a Dixie skull orchard.

1. (US) a very strong drink, also used as a generic brand name of a mythical strong liquor.

1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 45: Some revengeful Hildy Johnson who had overindulged in our Pisco punch, a skull-popper.
1990		Lincoln Star (NE) 29 Dec. 6/4: Clusters of flops were known as ‘Skid Row.’ These neighborhoods [had] liquor stores that sold moderately priced pints of skull-popper.
1999		Star trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 7 Nov. F17/1: Her dad — a swiller of ‘Old Skull Popper’.

2. (US) a major problem, an intellectual challenge.

1957		Miami News (FL) 6 Oct. 16/1: This philosophy paid off [...] but now it’s really a skull-popper of a problem.
1969		Dly News (NY) 3 Nov. 4/3: Revolts may continue to disrupt the public school system [...] and maybe a dozen other skull poppers to round out the mayor’s four-year term.

3. (US) a major defeat.

1962

Dly Herald Press (Provo, UT) 24 Oct. 9/2: The Mountain Cats came out on the short end of a real skullpopper last weekend [...] 36-8.

4. (US drugs) a strong drug, poss. marijuana.

1988

Chicago Trib. 7 June 3/1: Good sportsmanship requires that they catch you in the act of [...] selling an ounce of skull-popper to a kid in a schoolyard.

(US) a discussion, a conference.

1922		Jrnl & Courier (Lafayette, IN) 4 May11/1: The skull session was devoted to a review of the work of the team in the DePauw contest.
1933		: Nat. Waltonian 1-3 n.p.: A special ‘skull session’ is being set aside during the convention for developing the practical abilities of Walton officials.
1941		Boy’s Life Oct. 47/3: A new type of chemical fire-extinguisher has come in, and Captain Yates holds a ‘skull session’ to explain how it operates.
1954		Billboard 23 Jan. 5/1: Friendly bull session or crucial skull session? That was the Question asked around the trade this week about the meeting.
1959		J. Blish Clash of Cymbals 97: Web and Estelle [...] had become accepted silent partners at such skull-sessions.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 61: When I get back from the skull session.
1978		Oshkosh Northwestern (WI) 26 Jan. 12/4: The Winnebago Guidance Clinic discussed the effect of divorce during a [...] skull session.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 69: No more dimwit skull sessions about Sparky Anderson and the weather.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 358: A skull session is when you let whatever’s in there – he tapped his head – rattle around, recombine, come out in whatever form it takes. If an idea rings bells in somebody else’s head, jibes with something in their files, then you toss it around.
2008		M. Scott Harley-Davidson Motor Co. 115: During a long skull session with Harley's ad agency, Fessler took a hard look at the differences between Harley-Davidson and the Japanese companies.
2017		News-Messenger (Fremont, OH) 21 Sept. A4/2: The ‘skull sessions’ [...] are free to the public.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 138: I replayed a long skull session with Phil Irwin.

(US) an intelligence test.

1930

M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 21: I had had little education, even for a cop. The idea of having to do heavy-weight exercises with the mind gave me a chill [...] Six thousand men were to take the skull test.

a wig.

1825

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 June 165/3: Reynolds instantly threw up the skull thatch.

1. a wig-maker.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Scull thatcher, a peruke-maker.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 74: Skull Thatcher, a wig or bonnet-maker.

2. a hat.

1825		Caledonian Mercury 13 June 3/4: Robsinson was again grassed [...] Crosbie’s second said he should fight no more. Reynolds instantly threw up the skull-thatch [...] and Robsinson [...] kindly shook hands .
1836		F. Chamier Ben Brace (1840) 303: ‘I don’t remember you.’ ‘Nor I you in that three-cornered Portuguese man-of- war-looking skull-thatcher’.
1837		F. Chamier Arethusa 2 52: Mr. Chips, knock off that fellow’s skull-thatcher — that roof of straw he has jammed over his head!
1863		M.E. Braddon Aurora Floyd II 270: ‘I’ll find my skull-thatcher if I can,’ said Captain Prodder, groping for his hat amongst the brambles and long grass.

3. a maker of straw bonnets.

1835		[T.K. Hervey] Autobiog. of Jack Ketch 100: I’ll introduce you to my sister; she’s a skull-thatcher [...] a straw bonnet maker.
1837		Freeman’s Jrnl (Cork) 9 Jan. 4/2: ‘Pray, ma’am, what is a skull thatcher?’ ‘It’s a person, Sir, that makes sthraw hats and sthraw bonnets for boys and girls’.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 161: I can understand that a strawbonnet-maker may, with some sort of sense, be called a ‘skull-thatcher’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1929		North Wales Chron. (Bangor) 10 Sept. 4/4: Peace to the manes of the [...] artificers of human hair — the true skull thatchers — the architects of towering toupees.
1976		(con. 1776) Times & Democrat (Orangeburg, SC) 4 July 85/3: Skull Thatcher — A wigmaker.

(US) a blow on the head.

1895		Tonganoxie Mirror (KS) 28 Feb. 8/2: He fell off a wagon [...] and injured his skull [...] He never entirely rallied from his skull trouble.
1931		(con. 1900s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 84: The next time I find you on this corner there’ll be skull trouble, plenty of it.
1933		C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 135: If any roughnecks or undesirable characters dared to pass through [that place] there would be skull trouble.

to be arrogant, conceited.

1886

Lantern (N.O.) 15 Sept. 3: Strange how some men get their skulls swelled when they get on the force.

1. crazy.

1955		S. Allen Bop Fables 9: You’re out of your skull.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 41: ‘Robbery!’ I said to them. ‘[...] Man, you’ve got to be out of your skull. I’m not a robber, I’m a prostitute.’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 113: I was out of my skull.
1984		S. King Thinner (1986) 96: I’m going out of my skull this morning.

2. an intensifer, meaning extremely bored.

1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 32: He was bored out of his skull.
1977		Stage (London) 8 Dec. 5/3: Help! Entrepreneur/polymath, bored out of his skull with making money, invites sensible proposals.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 329: Yeah, well I was bored out of me skull anyway.
2000		Guardian Rev. 8 Jan. 12: My guess is that on January 2 we’ll be bored out of our skulls.

3. intoxicated, either through drink or, later, drugs.

1957		J. Gelber Connection 69: He’s out of his skull. Look at him. Hey, man, how do you feel?
1969		F. Norman Norman’s London 231: English hippies sit around in the Arab cafés kiffed out of their skulls.
1976		E. Thompson Caldo Largo (1980) 207: Bob Crumbie is out of his skull.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 267: Got some mates down there who say they’re out of their skulls twenty-four hours a day.
1990		P. Hotz Muzukuru 6: I was smashed out of my skull at the time.
1999		Guardian Weekend 9 Oct. 24: He heard the voice of an old drinking friend [...] he shouted into the phone ‘are you out of your skull? What do you mean calling at 3am?’.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 237: After a morning on the free whisky, [...] Len was what Alex would have called totally out of his skull.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 10: M-Rock wandering in Times Square, fucking drunk out of his skull.

(US black) to pass on information; to render pleasure.

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 1: In spinning a platter of some very popular band leader, I would come on something like this: ‘Jackson, here’s that man again, cool, calm and a solid wig, he is laying a frantic scream that will strictly pad your skull, fall in and dig the happenings.’ Which is to say, the orchestra leader is a real classy singer and has a voice that most people would like.

see use one’s head under use v.²

see pull your head in! under head n.