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 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals), line 48, page vii:

     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.

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 960102938:

     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 946730821:

     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, Shakespeare, William, 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 […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; 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, Shakespeare, William, 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
   • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter I, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662, 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.

• DACLs, S.D. Cal., clads

• IPA^(key): [skald]

scald

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

From French scalde.

scald m (plural scalzi)

1. skald