Meaning

noun a carving (or engraving) on whalebone, whale ivory, walrus tusk, etc., usually by American whalers

originThe origin of the verb is unknown, but it has possibly been influenced by the surname Scrimshaw. Various etymologies have been proposed (for example, that it derives from scrimshank (“(Britain, military slang) to be idle, to shirk duty”)), but the Oxford English Dictionary does not consider any of them convincing. Following the surname theory, Etymonline ultimately derives the word probably from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0