online medical dictionary | definition of skink

To draw or serve, as drink. "Bacchus the wine them skinketh all about." (Chaucer) "Such wine as Ganymede doth skink to Jove." (Shirley)

Origin: Icel. Skenja; akin to Sw. Skaka, Dan. Skienke, AS. Scencan, D. & G. Schenken. As. Scencan is usually derived from sceonc, sceanc, shank, a hollow bone being supposed to have been used to draw off liquor from a cask. See Shank, and cf. Nunchion.

To serve or draw liquor.

Drink; also, pottage.

<zoology> Any one of numerous species of regularly scaled harmless lizards of the family Scincidae, common in the warmer parts of all the continents.

The officinal skink (Scincus officinalis) inhabits the sandy plains of South Africa. It was believed by the ancients to be a specific for various diseases. A common slender species (Seps tridactylus) of Southern Europe was formerly believed to produce fatal diseases in cattle by mere contact. The American skinks include numerous species of the genus Eumeces, as the blue-tailed skink (E. Fasciatus) of the Eastern United States. The ground skink, or ground lizard (Oligosoma laterale) inhabits the Southern United States.

Origin: L. Scincus, Gr

Alternative forms: scink.

(01 Mar 1998)