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skedaddle

[ski-dad-l]Informal.

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR skedaddle ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), ske·dad·dled, ske·dad·dling.

to run away hurriedly; flee.

noun

a hasty flight.

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. 2019

Related Words for skedaddle

move, dash, whiz, speed, scat, blow, vamoose, zip, scamper, split, hustle, run, dart, decamp, bolt, hurry, spur, expedite, fly, rush

Examples from the Web for skedaddle

Contemporary Examples of skedaddle

Skedaddle onto the equally heart-stopping Million Dollar Highway to Ouray and Telluride.
The U.S. Road Trips You Should Really Take
Lonely Planet
April 26, 2014

Historical Examples of skedaddle

They skedaddle like lightning if they see so much as Rachel's shadow.
The Jolliest School of All
Angela 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-Boy
Harry M. Kieffer
The fight lasted about three hours, when the rebs were obliged to skedaddle.
An Artilleryman's Diary
Jenkin 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 Laughed
Edna Ferber

British Dictionary definitions for skedaddle

skedaddle

verb

(intr) to run off hastily

noun

a hasty retreat

Word Origin for skedaddle

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper