skulls

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of skull.

   Archaeologists cataloged dozens of skulls unearthed at the burial site.

   A row of polished elephant skulls lined the dusty shelf.

   Note

   A regular plural, but it covers more than bone. It can name the crusts that form on a ladle when molten metal partly cools, or the crowns of armored headpieces, and in Scotland it names shallow bow-handled baskets. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb. After a singular subject, as in "the golfer skulls it," skulls is the verb, not the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of skull.

   Every round, the boxer skulls his opponent before the bell rings.

   The golfer skulls the ball straight into the bunker when he rushes.

   Note

   The verb behind it does three quite different jobs. Someone skulls an opponent with a fist, a weapon or a thrown object. A player skulls the ball by striking only its top. A drinker skulls a glass by upending it to finish what is left. Each use has something struck or emptied, which keeps this form apart from the plural noun it is spelled like.

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