skitter
Americanverb (used without object)
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to go, run, or glide lightly or rapidly.
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to skim along a surface.
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Angling. to draw a lure or a baited hook over the water with a skipping motion.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to move or run rapidly or lightly; scamper
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to skim or cause to skim lightly and rapidly, as across the surface of water
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(intr) angling to draw a bait lightly over the surface of water
Etymology
Origin of skitter
Explanation
When someone or something moves in a rapid, light way, you can say they skitter. Your cat might spend hours fascinated by the bugs that skitter across your window. Little kids will usually skitter onto a playground, moving much more slowly when it's time to leave. And while older cats spend much of the day sleeping lazily, playful kittens will skitter crazily around the house if you give them a crumpled ball of paper to play with. Skitter comes from an old verb, skite, "to dart or run quickly," probably from a Scandinavian root.
Vocabulary lists containing skitter
Of Mice and Men
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myPerspectives 6.2
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
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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.
Robots skitter and whir around the 40-foot tall columns, which are part of a multi-step process that will ultimately convert the CO2 to concrete, rendering the planet-warming compound into nothing more harmful than a stone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
On a short summer night, listen and you might hear a war whoop skitter out of the darkness along the riverbanks, followed by the scattering yips of coyotes on Mount Sentinel.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2023
A little fuel and some high-frequency sparking makes the robot skitter across the ground.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023
Smaller than a mouse and about the weight of three pennies in the hand, the Dorset bats skitter across the cave walls or cling to one another for warmth.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2023
The second Mom turns on the light, a dozen roaches skitter and scurry toward the crack in the wall.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
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.
