Chapter Screwed to Sea Deities of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Screwed to Sea Deities

Screwed Intoxicated. A playful synonym of tight, which again is a playful synonym of blown out.

Screwed on Right His head was screwed on right. He was clear-headed and right-thinking.

“His heart was in the right place ... and his head was screwed on right, too.”- Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, xv.

   Screwed on the wrong way. Crotchety, ungainly, not right.

Scribe (1 syl.), in the New Testament, means a doctor of the law. Thus, in Matthew xxii. 35, we read, “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him, Which is the great commandment of the law?” Mark (xii. 28) says, “One of the scribes came and asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all?”
   In the Old Testament the word is used more widely. Thus Seraiah is called the scribe (secretary) of David (2 Sam. viii. 17); in the Book of Chronicles “Jael the scribe” was an officer in the king's army, who reviewed the troops and called over the muster-roll. Jonathan, Baruch, Gemariah, etc., who were princes, were called scribes. Ezra, however, called “a ready scribe in the law of Moses,” accords with the New Testament usage of the word.

Scriblerus (Martinus). A merciless satire on the false taste in literature current in the time of Pope. Cornelius Scriblerus, the father of Martin, was a pedant, who entertained all sorts of absurdities about the education of his son. Martin grew up a man of capacity; but though he had read everything, his judgment was vile and taste atrocious.

Scrimmage A tussle; a slight battle. From the obsolete scrimer, a fencer; French, escrimeur; same root as escarmouch, our skirmish.

“Prince Ouffur at this skrymage, for all his pryde,
Fled full fast and sought no guide.”
MS. Lansdowne, 200, f. 10.

Scriptores Decem A collection of ten ancient chronicles on English history, edited by Roger Twysden and John Selden. The ten chroniclers are Simeon of Durham, John of Hexham, Richard of Hexham, Ailred of Rieval, Ralph de Diceto (Archdeacon of London), John Brompton of Jorval, Gervase of Canterbury, Thomas Stubbs, William Thorn of Canterbury, and Henry Knighton of Leicester.

Scriptores Quinque A collection of five chronicles on the early history of England, edited by Thomas Gale.

Scriptores Tres [the three writers ]. Meaning Richard of Cirencester, Gildas Badonicus, and Nennius of Bangor. Julius Bertram, professor of English at Copenhagen, professed to have discovered the first of these treatises in 1747, in the royal library of that city. Its subject is De Situ Britanniae, and in 1757 he published it along with the two other treatises, calling the whole The Three Writers on the Ancient History of the British Nations. Bertram's forgery was completely exposed by J. E. Mayor, in his preface to Ricardi de Cirencestria Speculum Historiale. (See Sanchoniatho .)

Scriptorium An apartment in every abbey where writers transcribed service-books for the choir and books for the library. (Warton.)

Scriptures (See Seven Bibles .)

Scudamore (Sir). The lover of Amoret, whom he finally marries. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iii. iv.)

Scudding under Bare Poles In seaman's language to scud means to drive before a gale with no sails, or only just enough to keep the vessel ahead of the sea; “scudding under bare poles” is being driven by the wind so violently that no sail at all is set. Figuratively it means to cut and run so precipitately as to leave no trace behind.

Scullabogue Massacre In the Irish rebellion of 1798 Scullabogue House, Wexford, was seized by the rebels and used for a prison. Some thirty or forty prisoners confined in it were brought out and shot in cold blood, when the news of a repulse of the rebels at New Ross arrived (5th June, '98). The barn at