scuttle

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌtəl/, [ˈskʌtɫ̩], [ˈskʌtəɫ]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌtəl/, [ˈskʌɾɫ̩], [ˈskʌɾəɫ]

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ʌtəl

From Middle English scuttel, scutel, from Old English scutel (“dish, platter”), from Latin scutella, diminutive form of Latin scutra (“flat tray, dish”), perhaps related to Latin scutum (“shield”); compare Dutch schotel and German Schüssel.

scuttle (plural scuttles)

Coal scuttles

1. A container like an open bucket (usually to hold and carry coal).
2. A broad, shallow basket.
3. (obsolete, Northern England and Scotland) A dish, platter or a trencher.

The sense of "dish, platter" survives in compounds like scuttle-dish (a large dish).

Borrowed from Middle French escoutille (compare French écoutille), from Old Norse skaut (“corner of a cloth, of a sail”)[1], or alternatively from Spanish escotilla, ultimately from Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍄𐍃 (skauts, “projecting edge, fringe”), from Proto-Germanic *skautaz (“corner; wedge; lap”). Compare German Schoß[2], Old English sċēat. More at sheet.

scuttle (plural scuttles)

1. A small hatch or opening in a boat. Also, small opening in a boat or ship for draining water from open deck.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!‎:

     The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.

2. (construction) A hatch that provides access to the roof from the interior of a building.

• (hatch that provides access to the roof): roof hatch

scuttle (third-person singular simple present scuttles, present participle scuttling, simple past and past participle scuttled)

1. (transitive, nautical) To cut a hole or holes through the bottom, deck, or sides of (as of a ship), for any purpose.
2. (transitive) To deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner.
   • 2002, Richard Côté, Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy, Corinthian Books (2002), →ISBN, page 325:

     In this version, the Patriot was boarded by pirates (or the crew and passengers were overpowered by mutineers), who murdered everyone and then looted and scuttled the ship.

   • 2003, Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955, Northwestern University Press (2003), →ISBN, page 238:

     To lay the foundation for an all-weather dock at Shelter Bay, he filled an old barge with worn-out grindstones from the Thorold paper mill, then scuttled the vessel.

   • 2007, Michael Mueller, Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler's Spymaster, Naval Institute Press (2007), →ISBN, page 17:

     He decided that before scuttling the ship to prevent her falling into enemy hands he had to get the dead and wounded ashore.

   • 2009, Nancy Toppino, Insiders' Guide to the Florida Keys and Key West, Insiders' Guide (2009), →ISBN, page 227:

     In recent years, steel-hull vessels up to 350 feet long have been scuttled in stable sandy-bottom areas, amassing new communities of fish and invertebrates and easing the stress and strain on the coral reef by creating new fishing and diving sites.

3. (transitive, by extension, in figurative use) Undermine or thwart oneself (sometimes intentionally), or denigrate or destroy one's position or property; compare scupper.

   The candidate had scuttled his chances with his unhinged outburst.

See scuddle.

scuttle (third-person singular simple present scuttles, present participle scuttling, simple past and past participle scuttled)

1. (intransitive) To move hastily, to scurry.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     With the first dawn of day, old Janet was scuttling about the house to wake the baron.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 3

     there was a wisp or two of fine seaweed that had somehow got in, and a small crab was still alive and scuttled across the corner, yet the coffins were but little disturbed.

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 8

     Morel scuttled out of the house before his wife came down.

The word "scuttle" carries a crab-like connotation, and is mainly used to describe panic-like movements of the legs, akin to crabs' leg movements.

scuttle (plural scuttles)

1. A quick pace; a short run.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spectator to this entry?)

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• An historical dictionary
• The English Dialect Dictionary
• Scuttle in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• cutlets, cuttles