bugout
Americannoun
-
Military Slang. a hasty retreat from combat, especially in defiance of orders.
-
Slang. a person who is willfully absent from duties or obligations.
Etymology
Origin of bugout
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; noun use of verb phrase bug out “leave”
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.
Your bugout bag might be stocked better than anyone you know, and your wilderness training may be top-notch.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2022
Keebler held regular meetings and field training sessions, and he had scouted "bugout" locations in rural Utah, he said.
From US News ● Jul. 21, 2016
Though some allied commanders described the Iraqi pullback as an orderly fighting retreat, at times it looked like a pell- mell bugout.
From Time Magazine Archive
They speak flawless English — and Spanish and Cantonese and Esperanto and Navajo, just pick a channel — and they use a beautiful bugout contralto like a newscaster who started out as an opera singer.
From Shadow of the Mothaship by Cory Doctorow
Lately, he'd taken to avoiding looking at his mother: her infra-red signature was like a landing-strip for a coronary, and she wouldn't let him take her to one of the bugout clinics for nanosurgery.
From Super Man and the Bug Out by Cory Doctorow
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.
