Vamooses

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To exit a place abruptly or speedily, often to evade a situation or to escape quickly and unexpectedly from a location
2. To make a hasty and unannounced departure, often driven by the desire to avoid confrontation or unforeseen circumstances
3. To depart from a location rapidly and without warning, typically to avoid being noticed or to escape trouble

Etymology: "Vamooses" is the third-person singular present form of "vamoose," so it shares the history of that verb. The verb is an alteration of Spanish "vamos" ("we go") or "vámonos" ("let's go"), words that American English picked up from the Spanish of the Southwest and Mexico and bent into a slangy command to clear out. The Spanish originals are simply forms of "ir," to go. "Vámonos" in particular was a phrase that travelers, soldiers, and settlers in the American Southwest would hear constantly, and English speakers adopted it as a quick way to say "let's get out of here." Over time it turned from a phrase into a verb, so people began to say that someone had vamoosed, and the sense of leaving quickly and quietly, often ahead of trouble, came with it.

Synonyms: leaves, departs, disappears, vanishes, escapes

Antonyms: arrives, stays, remains