Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To move rapidly along a surface, usually with frequent light contacts or changes of direction; skip or glide quickly: lizards that skitter away when approached.
- v. To fish by drawing a lure or baited hook over the surface of the water with a skipping movement.
- v. To cause to skitter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To skim; pass over lightly.
- In angling, to draw a baited hook or a spoon-hook along the surface of water by means of a rod and line: as, to skitter for pickerel.
- n. The act of skittering, or gliding or skimming over with a light touch.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive to move hurriedly or as by twitching or bouncing
- v. intransitive to make a skittering noise
- n. A skittering movement.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To move or pass (something) over a surface quickly so that it touches only at intervals; to skip.
- v. To pass or glide lightly or with quick touches at intervals; to skip; to skim.
WordNet 3.0
- v. glide easily along a surface
- v. twitch the hook of a fishing line through or along the surface of water
- v. cause to skip over a surface
- v. to move about or proceed hurriedly
Etymologies
- Probably frequentative of dialectal skite, to run rapidly, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse skjōta, to shoot; see shoot. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Mid-album, the thin skitter of "Boiling Water" unfurls into a seriously nagging tune that will sound sweet in H&M.”
“ The smile on her face freezes as coins skitter and bounce across the counter, to the floor at her feet, and she looks up, confused.”
“The smile on her face freezes as coins skitter and bounce across the counter, to the floor at her feet, and she looks up, confused.”
“If I wasn't so stove up, an 'nobody wasn't lookin', I'd jes 'skitter' round this here yard like a colt!”
“If I was n't so stove up, an 'nobody was n't lookin', I 'd jes' skitter 'round this here yard like a colt!”
“What weight of line are you using with the skitter-pop, I have been using them for years with great success.”
“Yes | No | Report from wvboy1022 wrote 16 weeks 4 days ago skitter pops or bass poppers for fly fishing”
“I hate hate hate it when they put the coins on top of the notes, as they are bound to skitter off and end up under something when I attempt to slide them into my wallet.”
“Her thumbs skitter over the keypad and a thin cord leads to her ear, which makes whispery noises.”
“Or at night, when small beasts skitter about among the herbs.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘skitter’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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I am : moving
Words to describe gait and movement.
walk, run, trot, jog, canter, gallop, skip, crawl, slink, slither, amble, trundle and 69 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
mortgage, fiddling, rage, kick, stroke, dodge, hunch, scratch, covetous, rank, trickle, budget and 179 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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wordsmith III: revenge of wordie
sedimentary, igneous, segment, surfeit, unctuous, magma, garble, ransack, concubine, coincide, metamorphic, clastic and 208 more...
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Favorites
shuck, skitter, envelop, apprehension, inextricable, extricate, detachment, tangled, reticent, despondent, lament, platitude and 5 more...
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ricochet
carom, parados, vernal, free radical, rebound, recoil, skim, kick back, bound off, bounce, glance, skip and 6 more...
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Manners of Moving
amble, stroll, stride, saunter, parade, toddle, scamper, clamber, slink, scuff, slip, skitter and 19 more...
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Action Verbs
snatch, skitter, skewer, splay, retch, scamper, scurry, amble, amble, bound, canter, dart and 63 more...
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Extract (2009)
Words from 2009 'Extract' film.
humbucking, vato, sweatpants, settle down, forklift, dinkus, mill around, condo, chlorine, insulation, fiberglass, bartender and 38 more...
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electricallison's Words
crisp, clatter, scatter, alizarin, ornamental, brisk, skitter, farfalle, pristine, surf wagon, topography, humuhumunukunukua... and 5 more...
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newmedia's Words
proffer, bull's-eye, brave, reify, valence, salience, grace, sultry, epitome, blessing, material, deploy and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for skitter.
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