skulk

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“
It is one thing to be idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and murder a number of innocent men.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To lie in hiding, as out of cowardice or bad conscience; lurk.
  2. intransitive verb To move about stealthily.
  3. intransitive verb To evade work or obligation; shirk.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Had Monk tried to be cautious and skulk, the likelihood of his collecting bullets would have been great A man was sprawled outside the door of the house. —  036 - Mystery Under the Sea
  • Skulking where he needed to skulk, striding confidently when the streetscape required it? —  SON OF A WITCH
  • They did not skulk, but neither did they make themselves conspicuous. —  150 - The Wee Ones
  • Murderous lead drove him back He was forced to skulk, dodging bullets while Roxey Vail was taken aboard the ice-coated hulk of the lost liner More Eskimos soon arrived. —  004 - The Polar Treasure
  • They finished the bottle of wine and were both a little silly trying to reverse-skulk their way back to Jeanie's quarters. —  Wraithbait
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English skulken, of Scandinavian origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also sculk; from Middle English skulken, sculken, scolken, from Danish skulke =Norwegian skulka =Swedish skolka, skulk, slink, play truant (cf. Icelandic skolla, skulk, keep aloof, skollkini, ‘skulker,’ a poetic name for the wolf, skolli, ‘skulker,’ a name for the fox, and for the devil); with formative -k (as in lurk, from Middle English luren, English lower), from the verb appearing in D. schuilen, Low German schulen, skulk, lurk in a hiding-place, German dial. schulen =English scowl, hide the eyes, peep slyly: see scowl.
  2. Also sculk; from skulk, v.
 

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/skəlk/
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