skedaddle \ski-DAD-l\,
verb:
1. to run away hurriedly;
flee.
noun:
1. a hasty flight.
1. a hasty flight.
"We don't have time to waste today, Eddie," she told him abruptly. "Now get your coffee and skedaddle."
-- Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Bouillon, 1992
They just used to skedaddle off to work — I've seen hundreds of 'em, bit of breakfast in hand, running wild and shining to catch their little season-ticket train, for fear they'd get dismissed if they didn't; working at businesses they were afraid to take the trouble to understand...
-- H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, 1898
Skedaddle
is an
Americanism that arose in the 1860s. It may be related to the Scottish
dialect word of the same spelling meaning "to spill, scatter."
No comments:
Post a Comment