take a powder

1. To make a quick departure: “When he saw the police coming, the thief decided to take a powder.”

Idioms and Phrases

Make a speedy departure, run away, as in I looked around and he was gone—he'd taken a powder . This slangy idiom may be derived from the British dialect sense of powder as “a sudden hurry,” a usage dating from about 1600. It may also allude to the explosive quality of gunpowder.

Related Words

• avoid
• depart
• disappear
• dodge
• elude
• emerge
• evade
• flee
• fly
• leave
• run
• slip
• slip away
• vanish