Definition of "skull"

He was about to roar when, lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff, he saw a whole skull—perhaps a cow's skull, a skull, perhaps, with the teeth in it. Sobbing, but absent-mindedly, he ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms.

1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960,

Thine are these orbs of light and shade;⁠Thou madest Life in man and brute;⁠Thou madest Death; and lo, thy footIs on the skull which thou hast made.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], prologue

My thoughts are flying around in my skull like fireflies in a jar, but all of a sudden I'm unbearably tired and can't stay awake.

2006, Bart Yates, The Brothers Bishop

Monte swung so hard at the next ball that he skulled it straight right, into the pond: 8 in, 9 out.

2002, Robert C. Knox, Golf Balls Are Female, page 148

She nearly skulled the next drink and, despite feeling a little woozy, she felt a lot better.

2016, Karen Nolan, The Y Necklace

That was at Jessica Eyre's sixteenth, and while nothing terrible had happened (I had skulled four Lemon Ruskis and fallen asleep in the garden), it was agreed by all that I had embarrassed myself.

2021, Mary Fifield, Kristin Thiel, Fire & Water

He lifted his pint to skull what was left, but suddenly the whole thing— the smell of smoke and spilled beer, the flat Glasgow voices, the chiming of the cash register, the clatter of glasses— was somehow too much.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 337

He skulled his drink, set the glass down, then grabbed the bottle and ambled over to the other couch.

2022, Lena Moore ·, Coveted

A knavish skull of boys and girls did pelt at him.

1586, William Warner, Albion’s England

These fishs, togither with the old Tunies and the young, called Pelamides, enter in great flotes and skulls, into the sea Pontus, for the sweet food that they there find: and every companie of them hath their fever all leaders and captaines; and before them all, the Maquerels lead the way; which, while they be in the water, have a colour of brimstone; but without, like they be to the rest.

1601, Philemon Holland (translator), Pliny the Elder (author), The Historie of the World. Commonly called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndvs., book IX, chapter xv: “Of the names and natures of many fishes.”