online medical dictionary | definition of scalp

1. That part of the integument of the head which is usually covered with hair. "By the bare scalp of Robin Hodd's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction!" (Shak)

2. A part of the skin of the head, with the hair attached, cut or torn off from an enemy by the Indian warriors of North America, as a token of victory.

3. The top; the summit. Scalp lock, a long tuft of hair left on the crown of the head by the warriors of some tribes of American Indians.

Origin: Perhaps akin to D. Schelp shell. Cf. Scallop.

1. To deprive of the scalp; to cut or tear the scalp from the head of.

2. <surgery> To remove the skin of. "We must scalp the whole lid [of the eye]" (J. S. Wells)

3. To brush the hairs of fuzz from, as wheat grains, in the process of high milling.

Origin: Scalped; Scalping.

(01 Mar 1998)