skedaddle
verbEtymology
First use appears c. 1861, in the New York Tribune. The word appeared and gained prominence in Civil War military contexts around 1861, and rapidly passing into more general use. Possibly an alteration of British dialect scaddle (“to run off in a fright”), from the adjective scaddle (“wild, timid, skittish”), from Middle English scathel, skadylle (“harmful, fierce, wild”), perhaps of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin, from Old Norse *sköþull; or from Old English *scaþol, *sceaþol (see scathel); akin to Old Norse skaði (“harm”). Possibly related to the Ancient Greek σκέδασις (skédasis, “scattering”), σκεδασμός (skedasmós, “dispersion”). Possibly related to scud or scat. It is possibly a corruption of "Let's get outa here".
Definitions
To move or run away quickly.
- "Well," continued the youth, "lots of good-a-'nough men have thought they was going to do great things before the fight, but when the time come they skedaddled."
- Then filled with inspiration he drove in his Buick, the busted muffler blasting in the country lanes and the great long car skedaddling dangerously on the curves. Lucky for the woodchucks they were already hibernating.
To spill
To spill; to scatter.
The act of running away
The act of running away; a scurrying off.
The neighborhood
- synonymflee
- synonymget lost
- synonymhightail
- synonymkick rocks
- synonymmake tracks
- synonymscat
- synonymskidoo
- synonymskitter
- synonymtake off
- synonymvamoose
- synonymmove quickly
- synonymrush
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for skedaddle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA