Scalp

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skælp/

Origin

Originally a northern word, and therefore presumed to come from a Scandinavian source, although the sense-development is unclear; compare Old Norse skálpr ("sheath"), Middle Dutch schelpe ("shell").

Full definition of scalp

Noun

1. (now dialectal) The top of the head; the skull.
2. The part of the head where the hair grows from, or used to grow from.
• ShakespeareBy the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
  This fellow were a king for our wild faction!
3. A part of the skin of the head, with the hair attached, formerly cut or torn off from an enemy by Native American warriors as a token of victory.Some tribes used to collect scalps to prove how many of the enemy they had killed in battle.
4. A victory.
• 1993, John Frohnmayer, Leaving Town Alive: Confessions of an Arts Warrior (page 331)Pat Buchanan, in his ongoing presidential quest, claimed his first scalp, and Donald Wildmon's newsletter chortled that his efforts in opposing the NEA had paid off.
5. (Scotland) A bed or stratum of shellfish; a scaup.
6. (figurative) The top; the summit.

Derived terms

• scalpless
• scalpy

Verb

1. To remove the scalp (part of the head from where the hair grows), by brutal act or accident.
2. (slang) To resell, especially tickets, usually for an inflated price, often illegally.
3. To screen or sieve ore before further processingscalped ore
4. (surgery) To remove the skin of.
• J. S. WellsWe must scalp the whole lid the eye.
5. (milling) To brush the hairs or fuzz from (wheat grains, etc.) in the process of high milling.

Anagrams

• calps
• claps
• clasp