These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skedaddle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 8 Feb. See more words with the same meaning: to go, leave, exit. 2018 His wife has skedaddled, but his nosy neighbor (the delightful Diana Bang) is eager to clean his house and enable his quest to track down the woman who was once almost his adoptive sister. See synonyms for skedaddle on verb (used without object), ske·dad·dled, ske·dad·dling. Citation from Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002 film) censored in hope of resolving Googles penalty against this site. ![]() 2017 After the car rolled backwards into the street, the two guys inside the car skedaddled. skedaddle (verb) skedaddle /sk ddl/ verb skedaddles skedaddled skeddaddling Britannica Dictionary definition of SKEDADDLE no object informal + humorous : to leave a place very quickly I've got to skedaddle or I'll be late. Smith Henderson, Popular Mechanics, 11 Jan. Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 9 June 2019 Ron's wife, Jan, wanted to pack up and be ready to skedaddle. Cheryl Hall, Dallas News, 13 July 2019 At a news conference on Tuesday-three days before British Prime Minister Theresa May was set to skedaddle off the world stage forever-the president questioned whether anyone was less than thrilled at his presence. QUIZ There are grammar debates that never die and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Ford had skedaddled, leaving Perot and Dawkins to face the music. See synonyms for skedaddle on verb (used without object), skedaddled, skedaddling. SI.com, 25 July 2019 Somewhere in the midst of all this, the Rev. Other definition of skedaddleis a hasty retreat. 2020 Arsenal have officially confirmed the capture of St Etienne centre back William Saliba, with the Frenchman putting pen to paper on a five-year deal at the Emirates before skedaddling straight back to the Ligue 1 side on loan for 2019/20. The definition of skedaddlein the dictionaryis to run off hastily. 2022 Sedan drivers skedaddle like frightened children when this Ranger fills their mirrors. Jonathon Green, in the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, suggests this transferred to the US through “the image of blood and corpses being thus ‘spilled and scattered’ on the battlefield before the flight of a demoralised army”.Recent Examples on the Web The tree totters, ornaments go flying, and cats skedaddle in this sing-along picture book for children ages 3 and older and their families. If you tell someone to skedaddle, you are telling them to run away or to leave a place quickly. This may be from Scots skiddle, meaning to splash water about or spill. Chamberss Twentieth Century Dictionary (v. (n) skedaddle A hasty, disorderly flight. skedaddle To betake ones self hastily to flight run away scamper off, as through fear or in panic. Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia skedaddle To spill scatter. The English Dialect Dictionary, compiled at the end of the nineteenth century, argues that it’s from a Scottish or Northern English dialect word meaning to spill or scatter, in particular to spill milk. Skedaddle To betake ones self to flight, as if in a panic to flee to run away. Was it Greek, as John Hotten argued in his Dictionary of Modern Slang in 1874, from skedannumi, to “retire tumultuously”, perhaps “set afloat by some Harvard professor”? It sounds plausible, but probably not. Where it comes from is almost totally obscure. ![]() ![]() It crossed the Atlantic astonishingly quickly, being recorded in the Illustrated London News in 1862 and then being put in the mouth of a young lady character by Anthony Trollope in his novel The Last Chronicle of Barset in 1867: “ ‘Mamma, Major Grantly has - skedaddled.’ ‘Oh, Lily, what a word!’ ” However, it quickly moved into civilian circles with the broader sense of leaving in a hurry. The last lines of the lyric are “He who fights and runs away, / May live to run another day.”" ![]() Its first appearance in print, in the New York Tribune of 10 August 1861, made this clear: “No sooner did the traitors discover their approach than they ‘skiddaddled’, (a phrase the Union boys up here apply to the good use the seceshers make of their legs in time of danger).”Ī satirical musical item from 1862 in which the pseudonymous author is using the newly fashionable slang term to point his message. The focus of all the early examples is the War without doubt it started out as military slang with the meaning of fleeing the battlefield or retreating hurriedly. Out of the blue, it became fashionable in 1862, with lots of examples appearing in American newspapers and books. What we do know for certain is that it suddenly appears at the beginning of the Civil War. This archetypal American expression - meaning to run away, scram, leave in a hurry or escape - has led etymologists a pretty dance in trying to work out where it comes from.
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