skedaddle
Americanverb (used without object)
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skedaddles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
skedaddled,
past participle, past
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skedaddling
present participle
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skedaddlesimple
-
skedaddlessimple
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have skedaddledperfect
-
has skedaddledperfect
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am skedaddlingprogressive
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are skedaddlingprogressive
-
is skedaddlingprogressive
-
have been skedaddlingperfect progressive
-
has been skedaddlingperfect progressive
Past
-
skedaddledsimple
-
had skedaddledperfect
-
was skedaddlingprogressive
-
were skedaddlingprogressive
-
had been skedaddlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skedaddle
1860–65, compare dial. ( Scots, N England) skedaddle to spill, scatter, skiddle to move away quickly
Explanation
When you skedaddle, you leave very suddenly. A kid who breaks a window with her baseball might decide to skedaddle before her neighbor comes home from work. You might decide to skedaddle from your aunt's party before she starts showing the slides from her vacation ten years ago, or skedaddle from the town swimming pool when it starts to rain. In either case, you're getting out of there, and fast. Skedaddle is American Civil War military slang, dating from about 1861 — experts aren't sure what its roots are.
Vocabulary lists containing skedaddle
Ben Zimmer's 30 Great American Words
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The Red Umbrella
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"Pitch Perfect," Vocabulary from the movie
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But even the vague threat of personal conflict and humiliation was enough to make him skedaddle down to Mar-a-Lago when it was time to go.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2023
“The session adjourns and members skedaddle out of there rapidly so it’s hard for journalists to get to them, unlike when they’re on the floor they can immediately get to them.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 17, 2022
He told the cars to skedaddle, which they were already going to do because their protest was about to start.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2020
But we can hear MGM’s “ultra pool” before we even lay eyes on it, and we turn on our heels and skedaddle back down the Strip to our hotel.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2018
I skedaddle down the steps crosst the yard to Miss Lizzy’s.
From "Girls Like Us" by Gail Giles
At barely an hour, it skedaddles in time to leave you with a sheepish smile.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
And then he skedaddles before the bill comes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2018
A late clatter into Gibbs, who skedaddles down the left, and that’s a second yellow for Barry.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 24, 2015
How long till Kelly skedaddles back to college, as Spurrier did?
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2015
The retreats were called "skedaddles," a term invented at the time by some wag.
From The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry With Legends of the Surrounding Country by Joseph Barry
What if instead of staying in the tomb, she skedaddled with a posy to the Renaissance club scene in Paris and found a new love?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2023
Usually the sheep walked away or skedaddled before any physical altercation actually broke out.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 17, 2022
One of the few positives is most investors seem to have skedaddled already.
From Reuters ● Feb. 11, 2022
Nor were they willing to be arrested for their beliefs when police finally intervened — they skedaddled at the first sign of flashing lights.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 13, 2020
Then he skedaddled down the hall, not wanting to be caught talking to the condemned prisoner.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Shame on you for skedaddling anonymously and cowardly away.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
But Long’s soon skedaddling down the inside-left channel to win another corner for Saints.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 15, 2020
The electric carts that you will soon see skedaddling around the lawns, meadows and playgrounds are just the latest in a decades-long transformation of trash management.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2017
I could see other critics, either through ignorance, deviousness or entitlement, cruising right around the line that everyone was supposed to stand in and skedaddling up the escalator to the theater.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2015
While the scared boys were skedaddling, Down the brook two geese came paddling.
From Max and Maurice a juvenile history in seven tricks by Charles Timothy Brooks
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
