scald

• (US) IPA^(key): /skɔld/; (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /skɑld/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /skɔːld/, /skɒld/
• Rhymes: -ɔːld
• Homophone: skald

From Middle English scalden, from Old Northern French escalder (cf. central Old French eschauder, eschalder), from Late Latin excaldāre (“bathe in hot water”), from Latin ex- (“off, out”) + cal(i)dus (“hot”).[1]

scald (third-person singular simple present scalds, present participle scalding, simple past and past participle scalded)

1. To burn with hot liquid.

   to scald the hand

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals), page vii, line 48:

     Mine own tears / Do scald like molten lead.

   • 1656, Abraham Cowley, Davideis:

     Here the blue flames of scalding brimstone fall.

   • 1943 March and April, “Notes and News: Southern Locomotive Destroys Raider”, in Railway Magazine, page 119:

     The fireman was scalded by steam, but he did not fare so badly as the enemy pilot, whose dead body was found on a bank about 100 yd. away from the train.

2. (cooking) To heat almost to boiling.

   Scald the milk until little bubbles form.

scald (plural scalds)

1. A burn, or injury to the skin or flesh, by hot liquid or steam.
2. (Appalachia) Poor or bad land.

Alteration of scall or scalled.

scald (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Scaliness; a scabby skin disease.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Her craftie head was altogether bald, / And as in hate of honorable eld, / Was ouergrowne with scurfe and filthy scald […].

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Some heale Horses, some cure men, some the plague, some the scald [translating teigne], some the cough, some one kinde of scab, and some another […].

scald (comparative more scald, superlative most scald)

1. (obsolete) Affected with the scab; scabby.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act III, scene i, line 110:

     and let us knog our / prains together to be revenge on this same scald, scurvy, / cogging companion,

2. (obsolete) Paltry; worthless.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     Would it not grieue a King to be so abuſ’d?
     And haue a thouſand horſmen tane away?
     And which is worſe to haue his Diadem
     Sought for by ſuch ſcalde knaues as loue him not?

   • 1598, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, act V, scene ii, line 215:

     Saucy lictors / Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers / Ballad us out o' tune.

• (scabby): roynish, scurvy; see also Thesaurus:scabby
• (paltry): contemptible, miserable, trashy; see also Thesaurus:despicable

scald (plural scalds)

1. Alternative form of skald
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter I, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 28:

     The fire was spreading rapidly through all parts of the castle, when Ulrica, who had first kindled it, appeared on a turret, in the guise of one of the ancient furies, yelling forth a war-song, such as was of yore chaunted on the field of battle by the scalds of the yet heathen Saxons.

• scald-crow (possibly etymologically related to above)

• DACLs, S.D. Cal., clads

• IPA^(key): [skald]

scald

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of scălda

Borrowed from French scalde.

scald m (plural scalzi)

1. skald

• (Early Scots) IPA^(key): [skauld]
• (Early Middle Scots) IPA^(key): [skɑːld], [skaːld]
• (Late Middle Scots) IPA^(key): [skɑːld], [skaːld]

Inherited from Middle English scald, later spelling of scallede affected with the scall, contemptible.

• skade, scaid, skaid, scad, skald, scauld

scald (not comparable)

1. (Middle Scots) affected by a scabby disease of the skin or scalp
2. (Middle Scots) scabby, passing into an expression of general opprobrium or revulsion, foul, filthy

Inherited from Middle English scald, apparently obsolete after 1483, from Old Norse skáld (“poet”).

• scauld, skaul, scall, skold

scald (plural scaldis)

1. (Middle Scots) one given to the use of vituperation or abusive language
2. (Middle Scots) one who by the use of such language causes public disturbance
3. (Middle Scots) a foul-mouthed quarreller (applied to both men and women, but in the 17th century perh. increasingly to women.)

Possibly from English scald, first certified in 1601.

• skaid, scad

scald (plural scaldis)

1. (Middle Scots, possibly figuratively) a mark or blemish

• hartskaid
• hart-scald

Inherited from Middle English schalde, from Old French eschalder (“to burn, scald”), from Late Latin excaldāre (“to wash in hot water”).

• skad, scade, skaid, schald, scawde, skaude, scall, scad, skald

scald (third-person singular simple present scaldis, present participle scaldyng, simple past scaldit/scalded, past participle scaldit/scalded)

1. (Middle Scots, transitive, of fire) to scorch or burn (also of the fire of Purgatory)
   1. (Middle Scots, absolutive, reflexive) to burn (a person) by way of punishment
   2. (Middle Scots, absolutive) to hurt by, or as by, the action of hot steam or liquid
2. (Middle Scots) to affect (something) in a way comparable to the effect produced by the action of hot water or steam; to damage severely
   1. (Middle Scots) (of thoughts or cares) to inflame or irritate (a person, his or her mind)
3. (Middle Scots) to cleanse, wash out or sterilise with boiling water
4. (Middle Scots, used only in proverbs) to cause (one's lips) to be scalded or burned by eating hot food (also with reflexive object.)
5. (Middle Scots, intransitive) to suffer the effects of excessive heat; to faint or swoon in consequence of (with) this; to shrivel up
   1. (Middle Scots, figuratively) to burn with (in) strong emotion or desire
6. (Middle Scots) to behave as if boiling, or about to boil; to froth; to bubble
7. (Middle Scots) to set fire to property, etc.; to burn

Inherited from Middle English scolden.

• skald, scold, skauld, skall

scald (third-person singular simple present scaldis, present participle scaldyng, simple past scaldit/scalded, past participle scaldit/scalded)

1. (Middle Scots, intransitive) to rail; to brawl; to quarrel noisily and in unseemly terms
2. (Middle Scots, transitive) to rebuke, chide

• “scald” in Scots Dictionary