Scuddle

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To move rapidly with short, quick strides in a hurried or furtive manner
2. To rush along with a scurrying gait, moving swiftly in small rapid steps
3. To hasten with quick short steps, darting or scampering from place to place

Etymology: Every time something scuttles across a kitchen floor, it is probably borrowing this word. "Scuttle" in its running sense seems to be a later form of scuddle, with the "d" sharpened to a "t". It has no family tie to the scuttle that sinks a ship, which comes from French "escoutille", a hatchway, or to the coal scuttle, from Latin "scutella", a dish. The parent word is "scud", which by the 1500s meant to run or fly fast. Where it came from is uncertain. One suggestion links it to the "scut", the short upright tail of a hare or rabbit, the flash of white you see as one bolts. Another points to a Scandinavian source related to the verb "shoot". Sailors made "scud" their own: a ship scuds when it runs before a gale with little or no sail, and clouds scud when wind drives them low and ragged across the sky. To "scud" English added "-le", an old suffix that turns a single action into a repeated, fussy, small-scale one. It is the same ending that makes a spark into a sparkle, a crack into a crackle, a drip into a dribble, and wading into waddling. A scud is one swift dash. A scuddle is a flurry of quick little steps, the motion of a crab, a beetle or a child late for school. Once the "t" form took hold, "scuttle" ran off with most of the work, and scuddle was left to dialect and to writers who liked its softer sound.

Synonyms: scuttle, scurry, scamper, scramble, hurry

Antonyms: saunter, amble, dawdle, linger, stroll