as in to flee
to hasten away from something dangerous or frightening
we skedaddled as soon as we saw the snake entering our campsite
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Recent Examples of skedaddle
Many politicians with ambitions for higher office arrive at events, are introduced, wave, shake a few hands and skedaddled to the next block on the schedule.
—
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 19 July 2025
But not on this episode, because Abby and the gang were already skedaddling back to Seattle.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 21 Apr. 2025
The Nazis took the bait, hook, line and sinker, and skedaddled to Sardinia, smoothing the way for the Allies to take Sicily, a major turning point in World War II.
—Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2025
The Nazis took the bait, hook, line and sinker, and skedaddled to Sardinia, smoothing the way for the Allies to take Sicily and marking a major turning point in World War II.
—Chris Jones, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2025
The sun's peeping out, and the budding journalists skedaddle outside, where their friends are just arriving.
—Lauren Migaki, NPR, 22 Feb. 2025
The Confederates saw the score and promptly skedaddled.
—Scott Spillman, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2025
Under the deal passed just as Congress skedaddled from Washington before the end of the year, the ceiling will be exceeded sometime between January 14 and January 23.
—Peter Green, Quartz, 4 Jan. 2025
Among the five Lab rats are two bosses: onscreen personality Edna (Chloë Sevigny) and Dave (Simon Rex), her partner in business and life, who soon skedaddles back to the States to deal with some legal matters that everyone but Edna is aware of.
—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 19 July 2025
But not on this episode, because Abby and the gang were already skedaddling back to Seattle.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 21 Apr. 2025
The Nazis took the bait, hook, line and sinker, and skedaddled to Sardinia, smoothing the way for the Allies to take Sicily, a major turning point in World War II.
—Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2025
The Nazis took the bait, hook, line and sinker, and skedaddled to Sardinia, smoothing the way for the Allies to take Sicily and marking a major turning point in World War II.
—Chris Jones, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2025
The sun's peeping out, and the budding journalists skedaddle outside, where their friends are just arriving.
—Lauren Migaki, NPR, 22 Feb. 2025
The Confederates saw the score and promptly skedaddled.
—Scott Spillman, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2025
Under the deal passed just as Congress skedaddled from Washington before the end of the year, the ceiling will be exceeded sometime between January 14 and January 23.
—Peter Green, Quartz, 4 Jan. 2025
Among the five Lab rats are two bosses: onscreen personality Edna (Chloë Sevigny) and Dave (Simon Rex), her partner in business and life, who soon skedaddles back to the States to deal with some legal matters that everyone but Edna is aware of.
—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for skedaddle
Verb
-
The president flees these tradeoffs as a matter of course and flip-flops unpredictably when pressures rise.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
8 Feb. 2026
-
During one game, Graham felt the pass rush and fled the pocket; Brown had ordered him to stay in it, no matter what.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
8 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Illinois lawmakers recently flirted with a tax on unrealized gains—think of stocks yet to be sold at fluctuating prices that only exist on paper—before retreating.—
Veronique De Rugy,
Oc Register,
5 Feb. 2026
-
Jackson was disinvited from the Grammy Awards telecast the following week and largely retreated from the public spotlight, while Timberlake’s career continued uninterrupted.—
Dallas Morning News,
Dallas Morning News,
4 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Carney ordered government buildings to fly flags at half-mast for the next week.—
Claire Carter,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Feb. 2026
-
Two airline sources said that airlines were given the impression that the closure was done out of an abundance of caution due to the FAA's inability to predict where drones might be flying.—
Brian Dakss,
CBS News,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Even under the best conditions, head cabbages are relatively slow growers, and early crops often bolt as soon as summer heat strikes, even if the plants aren't fully mature yet.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
7 Feb. 2026
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Cherry and his group then bolted from the scene, fleeing north on State Street to Lake Street, and then east on Lake Street to Wabash Avenue, as dozens of panicked people began running for their lives, prosecutors said.—
Adam Harrington,
CBS News,
5 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Cisco says the platform is built to support massive AI clusters running training, inference, and real-time agentic workloads while improving efficiency and lowering operating costs.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
11 Feb. 2026
-
In September, the preliminary revision inferred that the US economy likely added about 911,000 fewer jobs than the jobs reports initially estimated for the 12-month period running from April 2024 through March 2025.—
Alicia Wallace,
CNN Money,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
There were no sitters within that catalogue of misses — nothing toe-curling or likely to do a million views on YouTube — but his profligacy allowed Dortmund to escape with a 2-1 win.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
9 Feb. 2026
-
To escape Earth’s energy crunch, SpaceX is taking AI to orbit, where near-constant solar energy replaces Earth’s strained power grids.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Skedaddle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skedaddle. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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