make oneself scarce

present singular third person makes oneself scarce · participle present making oneself scarce · participle past made oneself scarce · past made oneself scarce

1. intransitiveTo leave or stay away from a place, especially in order to avoid an encounter.

   Perhaps I should make myself scarce before he finds any more chores to assign me.

   1 more example

   Piker disappears upstairs to shower, and his dad — a retired corporate executive with a Ph.D. in economics who’s written four books about European Union antitrust law — quickly makes himself scarce. But his mom sticks around.

   2026 August 9, Josh Eells, “Why Is Everyone Scared of Hasan Piker?”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2026