skip bail

1. Also, jump bail. Fail to appear in court for trial and thereby give up the bail bond (paid to secure one's appearance). For example, I can't afford to skip bail—I'd lose half a million, or We were sure he'd jump bail but he finally showed up. This idiom uses skip and jump in the sense of “evade”. The first dates from about 1900, the variant from the mid-1800s. Also see make bail.

Example Sentences

Agnes Chow, a prominent pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong who was arrested as part of a sweeping crackdown, said that she has fled to Canada and planned to skip bail, in a bold challenge to the authorities.

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But it stressed that it was inappropriate for the working group to have considered the case, insisting it was common practice to detain suspects likely to destroy evidence or skip bail.

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Mr Bushiri described his decision to skip bail as "a tactical withdrawal meant to preserve lives" while speaking to supporters on social media on Saturday.

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He managed to skip bail and leave the country despite heavy surveillance while he was staying at a home in Tokyo.

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Ghosn’s new Lebanon headache came as the international community scrambled to unravel the mystery of how he managed to skip bail in Japan, where his passports were supposedly held under lock and key by his lawyers and the Japanese authorities.

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