skulduggery means A devious device or trick. It carries an Arena rating of 1643, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, skulduggery ranks #1,131 of 25,264 for Qualifying, #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,319 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words, #2,340 of 14,361 for Most Ingenious Words.
skulduggery is pronounced /skʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/.
Why “skulduggery” is a great word
Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behavior; a devious trick or device. An alteration of Scots *sculduddery*, *sculdudrie* ("adultery, unchaste behavior; obscenity, lewdness"), of uncertain origin, likely a euphemism; first attested in its modern sense in the United States in the mid-19th century. Unlike "chicanery," which suggests clever, legalistic trickery, or "subterfuge," which denotes a specific deception, skulduggery carries the stronger, roguish whiff of active intrigue and moral rot. It is the weighted die in a backroom game, the forged signature on a will, the whispered conspiracy where cash changes hands—the low, persistent hum of corruption that requires not just deception, but appetite.
Etymology
An alteration of Scots sculduddery, sculdudrie (“adultery, unchaste behaviour; obscenity, lewdness”), of long-uncertain origin (probably a euphemism). Relation to skull is speculative at best and likely folk etymology. The American spelling skullduggery is in keeping with terms such as skillful and willful.
noun
- A devious device or trick.“A private company cannot get away with a skulduggery of that sort. Once it has paid out its money for taxes, it cannot reach into the public treasury and get it back and apply it on its amortization account.”
- Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour.“And I have another reason which I will express to my St Paul friends, and that is, that they have always been controlled in their political action here by a class of men who have always some traps set for the country members—by men who are always up to this border ruffian kind of trickery—this kind of skullduggery, as it is called in Minnesota. And now St. Paul allows herself to be controlled by t”
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