scuttering

• “But all I heard was the cheeping of birds and the occasional scuttering of small animals along the forest floor.”

  Simon & Schuster: The Children of the Lost

• “He came scuttering back, and he circled round and round me as I ploughed on; he drove the leeches away.”

  Dwellers in the Mirage

• “The sound or movement sent the dog scuttering into a corner.”

  Male Wanted

• “He caught a low-amplitude conversation between two persons a hundred miles distant, borne this far by some freak of atmospherics; closer by he sensed the impulses of small scuttering things, not worth chasing; a flier jetted overhead and filled his perception briefly with static.”

  Explorations

• “A sudden scuttering noise in front of him made Julian stop suddenly.”

  Five On A Secret Trail

• “I stayed happily weather-bound for an hour looking over Venice "silvered with slants of rain," and watching umbrellas scuttering below with toes beneath them.”

  An Englishwoman's Love-Letters

• “It is consistent with strength and humor and manliness; but sentimentality and sensibility are poor cheeping creatures that run scuttering along the ground, quivering and whimpering and asking for perpetual sympathy, which they do not at all deserve.”

  Famous Affinities of History — Complete

• “The faint scuttering which some small creature would make if it were disturbed — mouse, or mole, or rabbit — any one of them might be abroad in the dark.”

  Lonesome Road

• “No. At least the coots were no longer scuttering up and down in terror as he had seen them last.”

  Coot Club

• “We see her scuttering about t'other side of the river,' said Bill, forgetting his handkerchief was a turban and taking it off and wiping his hot face with it.”

  Coot Club

Show 10 more examples...