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skiffle

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skiffle¹

  • /ˈskɪf.əl/ UK, US

Rhymes with -ɪfəl

noun

  1. uncountable A type of folk music, with jazz and blues influences, using homemade or improvised instruments. The cats and the bats—and I hope you dig that one about the bats—played like mad in the backbeat 12, skiffling and skuffling , trying to get under the wire .

verb skiffles · skiffling · skiffled

  1. To play skiffle.

skiffle²

  • /ˈskɪf.əl/ UK, US

Rhymes with -ɪfəl

Where it comes from

From or related to Scots skiffle, from skiff (whence English skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”), which see for more). Related to skift (“light dusting of snow”).

noun skiffles

  1. Synonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”). For quotations using this term, see Citations:skiffle.

    Similar: skiff

verb skiffles · skiffling · skiffled

  1. To move in a way that stirs up and moves anything loose lying on the surface. As I am sitting at the stoplight under the maple and oak and cedar trees I see three tiny kids skiffling and shuffling and skittering and scuffling In the leaves

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Cite this
MLA

"skiffle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/skiffle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

skiffle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/skiffle

Chicago

"skiffle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/skiffle.

BibTeX
@misc{skiffle_2026,
  title = {skiffle},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/skiffle},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}