Slunk

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /slʌŋk/

Definitions

1. Moved away quietly and in a stealthy or timid way, often with a lowered posture
2. Departed or crept off silently and sneakily, sometimes showing shame or fear
3. Slipped away in a cautious, furtive manner, typically trying not to be noticed

Etymology: "Slunk" is the past tense and past participle of "slink," and its story begins with an unpleasant farmyard sense. "Slink" was once used of an animal giving birth prematurely, and a "slink" was the young born that way, often a calf or lamb that did not survive. That allusive sense is the root of the modern meaning: a creature that slinks away is moving low and out of sight, much as a miserable, half-formed newborn would have been hidden from view. The verb is linked to a family of words for hollows and low, wet ground. English dialect has "slank" for a low place, especially one that fills with water, and "slonk" for a depression, hollow, or slough. Whether the animal sense and these place words share a common base is not settled, so the connection is best seen as a related cluster of sounds and senses rather than a proven single origin.

Synonyms: crept, sneaked, lurched, slinked, skulked

Antonyms: strode, marched, rushed, bounded, walked