skedaddle
[ski-dad-l]Informal.
- to run away hurriedly; flee.
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- a hasty flight.
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Origin of skedaddle
1860–65, Americanism; compare dial. (Scots, N England) skedaddle to spill, scatter, skiddle to move away quickly
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for skedaddle
Contemporary Examples
Skedaddle onto the equally heart-stopping Million Dollar Highway to Ouray and Telluride.
Historical Examples
They skedaddle like lightning if they see so much as Rachel's shadow.
The Jolliest School of AllAngela Brazil
For the formation we may compare American vamose, to skedaddle, from Span.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)Ernest Weekley
Everything was in confusion, and all was helter-skelter, skurry, and skedaddle.
The Recollections of A Drummer-BoyHarry M. Kieffer
The fight lasted about three hours, when the rebs were obliged to skedaddle.
An Artilleryman's DiaryJenkin Lloyd Jones
Now skedaddle into your own rooms, but don't you dare to sit down for a moment.
Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who LaughedEdna Ferber
skedaddle
- (intr) to run off hastily
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- a hasty retreat
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Word Origin
C19: of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for skedaddle
v.
"to run away," 1861, American Civil War military slang, of unknown origin, perhaps connected to earlier use in northern England dialect with a meaning "to spill." Liberman says it "has no connection with any word of Greek, Irish, or Swedish, and it is not a blend" [contra De Vere]. He calls it instead an "enlargement of dial. scaddle 'scare, frighten.'" Related: Skedaddled; skedaddling. As a noun from 1870.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper