Meaning & use
skell
Last updated
Informal, chiefly New York City slang for a homeless person, vagrant, or petty criminal.
See it in a sentence
The officer recognized the man sleeping in the doorway as a local skell.
Old-timers used "skell" to describe the drifters who hung around the subway station.
A note on using this word
Believed to derive from "skeleton," this term is closely associated with New York City police and street slang.
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