skedaddle

19th century US. Probably an alteration of British dialect scaddle (“to run off in a fright”), from the adjective scaddle (“wild, timid, skittish”), from Middle English scathel, skadylle (“harmful, fierce, wild”), perhaps of Scandinavian origin, from Old Norse *sköþull; or from Old English *scaþol, *sceaþol (see scathel); akin to Old Norse skaði (“harm”). Possibly related to the Greek σκέδασις (skédasis, “scattering”), σκεδασμός (skedasmós, “dispersion”). (US) Possibly related to scud or scat.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /skɪˈdædəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædəl

skedaddle (third-person singular simple present skedaddles, present participle skedaddling, simple past and past participle skedaddled)

1. (informal, intransitive) To move or run away quickly.
   • 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 2, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 29:

     "Well," continued the youth, "lots of good-a-'nough men have thought they was going to do great things before the fight, but when the time come they skedaddled."

• (move or run away quickly): flee, vamoose, scat, take off, make tracks, get lost, kick rocks, hightail; see also Thesaurus:move quickly, Thesaurus:rush or Thesaurus:flee

skedaddle (plural skedaddles)

1. (informal) The act of running away; a scurrying off.

• Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages

• 1897, Hunter, Robert, and Charles Morris, editors, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, v4, p4291: "Etym. doubtful; perhaps allied to scud. To betake one's self hurriedly to flight; to run away as in a panic; to fly in terror. (A word of American origin.)"
• “Skedaddle” in Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, 7 February 2004.