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Skains-mate or Skeins-mate

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A dagger-comrade; a fencing-school companion; a fellow cut-throat. Skain is an Irish knife, similar to the American bowie-knife. Swift, describing an Irish feast, says, “A cubit at least the length of their skains.” Green, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, speaks of “an ill-favoured knave, who wore by his side a skane, like a brewer’s bung-knife.”

“Scurvy knave! I am none of his skainsmates.”—Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Six-hooped Pot
Six Members
Six Months War
Six Nations (The)
Six Points
Six-Principle Baptists (The)
Sixes and Sevens (All)
Sixteen-string Jack
Sizar
Sizings
Skains-mate or Skeins-mate
Skald
Skedaddle
Skeggs
Skeleton
Skeleton Jackets
Skevington’s Daughter
Skibbereen and Connemara (in Ireland)
Skibbereen Eagle (The)
Skid
Skiddaw