Lusked

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moved stealthily or lay idle in a hidden place, as a lazy person might skulk out of sight in a dialect usage
2. Stayed hidden and inactive in a corner, avoiding notice while doing little or nothing
3. Lingered furtively or loafed about without being seen, a regional and somewhat archaic way of hiding idly

Etymology: "Lusked" is the past tense of "lusk," a verb meaning to lie idle or skulk, and it carries a surprising kinship with a far more cheerful word. "Lusk" comes from Middle English, borrowed from Old Norse "lǫskr," meaning "weak" or "idle," which traces back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "sluggish, dull, lazy." The same ancestry gave English "lush," a doublet that split off and took on a very different sense of lavish abundance. The two words are cousins in the Germanic family, with related forms in Middle Dutch "lasch," meaning "flabby, loose," and Middle Low German "lasch" and "las," meaning "tired" or "dull." Their shared idea of limpness or slackness is what unites them, even though "lush" later came to describe luxuriant growth and plenty while "lusk" kept the sense of laziness and idleness.

Synonyms: lounged, idled, lazed