skittle
part of speech
noun (a skittle, skittles); skittles (the game)
meaning for a pupil
1) A wooden or plastic bottle-shaped piece that players try to knock down with a ball. tree →
2) Skittles is the game played with them, an older cousin of ten-pin bowling. tree →
3) (UK, informal) «Bowl over like skittles» or «knocked down like skittles» means many things falling quickly. tree →
sense in the lessons
A game word. Children play skittles in the garden or at a school fair; it is good for counting how many fell and how many stand. In The Wind in the Willows the animals and people of the old world play skittles in inns. Phrase: «Life is not all beer and skittles» (UK, old) means life is not all fun.
examples
- We set up nine skittles at the end of the hall. tree →
- Sam knocked down six skittles with one ball. tree →
- Let's play skittles in the garden! tree →
- The bowling ball scattered the skittles. tree →
- The wind knocked the bins over like skittles. tree →
- Life isn't all beer and skittles, said Grandad. tree →
note
Countable noun; the game «skittles» takes a singular verb: «Skittles is fun.» In maths: if there are 9 skittles and 6 fall, 9 − 6 = 3 are left standing. «Skittles» is also a brand of sweets; that is a name.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «skittle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.