Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
skulk .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Swain says there is no danger of it, but I would not care much if they did, as I hate the idea of skulking, as it were, out of the army, when my
Letter from Henry A. London to Lilla London, February 16, 1864 1864
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He was a Potomac ranger in the 1690s, responsible for chasing down what were then referred to as "skulking" Indians.
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He was a Potomac ranger in the 1690s, responsible for chasing down what were then referred to as "skulking" Indians.
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HARRIS: If I may, first of all, coming back to the use of the word "skulking" into the White House ...
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HARRIS: Christiane, if I may, first of all, coming back to the use of the word "skulking" into the White House ...
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My scholarship exam had fortunately concentrated on general intelligence and not math skills, and I'd survived from year to year in a kind of skulking dread of each new mathematical instrument that seemed designed for the sole purpose of tormenting me with its abstract and baffling technology.
Broken Music, A Memoir Sting 2003
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Deceit, trickery, lying, every kind of skulking underhand effort to get information; ceaseless endeavor to outwit and overcome
The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1897
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Besides making first-rate workmen, this method prevents the lads from getting into habits of workshop dishonesty, i.e. "skulking," and other annoyances.
James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885
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The Prince passed for a certain Lewis Caw, a surgeon's apprentice (who was actually 'skulking' in Skye at the time), and acted his part of humble retainer so well that poor Malcolm was quite embarrassed; and the rough servant-lass treated him with the contempt Highland servants seem to have for their own class, if 'Lowland bodies.'
The True Story Book Andrew Lang 1878
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Stutter and Wibberly, two of the sceptics, happened to be caught that very afternoon by Bloomfield in the act of "skulking" dinner -- that is, of answering to their names at the call-over, and then slipping off unobserved to enjoy a rather more elaborate clandestine meal in their own study.
The Willoughby Captains Talbot Baines Reed 1872
yarb commented on the word skulking
A milder form of lurking.
October 20, 2007
sionnach commented on the word skulking
Funny, skulking has always sounded worse than lurking to me.
October 20, 2007
yarb commented on the word skulking
Really? I imagine skulking as hands-in-pockets shiftiness, but lurking as hands up at shoulder-level, elbows slightly bent, in a sort of pantomime about-to-pounce pose.
October 20, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word skulking
I'm with sionnach on this one. Skulking is almost certainly up to no good, whereas lurking is more like hanging about.
October 21, 2007